Minister O'Keeffe branded 'misogynist'

There was exception taken at Monday's meeting of Cavan County Council to the tone of a letter written by Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe, on the issue of gender balance on VECs. The minister was responding to previous council representations urging that the ruling introduced in 2004 governing gender balance be changed. One of the councillors elected to County Cavan VEC following the June local elections, Maura Maguire Lynch, had to give up her seat on the VEC because of the statutory instrument in question. Minister O'Keeffe, in his letter, stated that Statutory Instrument 924 of 2004 dealing with the composition of VECs set out the requirements relating to gender proportionality on VECs in respect of those members elected by local authorities. "In that regard the ratio of male/female councillors chosen by the electorate in a particular local authority area is to be used as the basis for determining the male/female ratio of such members on the relevant VEC. It is my view that this is fair basis for making this determination," stated the minister, who went on to refer to the government's commitment to increasing the representation of women on state boards. However, Cllr. Pauline McCauley claimed that the tone of the minister's letter brought the word chauvinism to mind. She proposed that a letter now be sent to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform as it was his responsibility to ensure that the law didn't discriminate against anyone on grounds of gender. According to Cllr. Madeleine Argue the letter from the minister was a waste of time and when she suggested that Mr. O'Keeffe might be a misogynist, Cllr. John Paul Feeley described her remarks as scandalous. Cllr. Argue wouldn't relent, adding that the present situation was totally unfair. Cllr. Des Boylan described it as regrettable that those with the power to change the regulation didn't seem willing to do so. Cllr. Feeley didn't agree with quotas of any description stating that once a person was elected they are entitled to do the job they were elected for. It was unfortunate that some people should engage in name calling rather than making constructive proposals, he added. Cllr. Sean McKiernan suggested that the county council should write once again to the Oireachtas representatives for the constituency appealing to them to make every effort to change the legislation. Cllr. Gerry Murray said it might be a case of trying to bolt the door when the horse had gone, while Cllr. Shane P. O'Reillym returning to Cllr. Argue's misogynist remark, asserted that the minister was a married man with three daughters and wasn't a misogynist. Cllr. Argue accused the FF councillor of focusing on just one aspect of her comments. Cllr. Shane P. responded that he too regarded the statutory instrument in question as totally ridiculous. However, the place for it to be thrashed out was at a meeting of the governing body of the VECs. "You can only get change at the top but I have no problem in you sending a letter to the Minister for Justice," he said. Cllrs. Patricia Walsh and Niamh Smyth also expressed their deep unhappiness at the outworking of the statutory instrument and said that more efforts should be made to persuade women to become involved in politics. According to Cllr. Paddy O'Reilly it was the tone of the ministerial letter that was most annoying. It was typical civil servant reply, he thought.