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Women make their mark at the polls north and south

As counting neared completion, figures for the Republic showed there were 30 per cent more council seats occupied by women than after the 2009 local elections. 
As counting neared completion, figures for the Republic showed there were 30 per cent more council seats occupied by women than after the 2009 local elections.  As counting neared completion, figures for the Republic showed there were 30 per cent more council seats occupied by women than after the 2009 local elections. 

THE number of women elected in local and european contests in Ireland has increased significantly.

The non-partisan group Women For election yesterday said the growing number of female politicians in Ireland proved they "have just as good a chance as any man of getting elected".

Sinn Féin's female candidates fared well across the 32 counties in local government elections, securing 76 seats for women - representing 29.2 per cent of its successes. The party also has three female MePs.

Parties operating exclusively in the north also boosted their female representation, with the SDLP seeing 26 of its 41 female candidates elected to local authorities, representing 40 per cent of its total 66 seats.

An Alliance Party spokesman said 24 out of their 82 candidates were women. Women now make up a third of the party's 32 elected councillors.

TUV candidates also fared well gender-wise, with four of the party's 13 councillors being women, prompting a spokesman to say they would look at fielding more females in the future because they "performed better" on polling day.

The Ulster Unionist Party said 13 of its 88 councillors are women.

Figures for the DUP stood at just 21 females out of a total of 130 seats at local level - although Diane Dodds also retained her seat for the party in the european Parliament.

As counting neared completion, figures for the Republic showed there were 30 per cent more council seats occupied by women than after the 2009 local elections.

Fianna Fáil, which was left with no female TDs after the 2011 general election, won the most seats on Friday, with at least 266 councillors, but only 14 per cent of those were women.

Fine Gael's seats dropped by a third to just over 230 seats, with 21 per cent filled by women - as well as one MeP - while Labour may have been left devastated after retaining just over 50 seats, but 35 per cent of those are held by female councillors.

People Before Profit won 14 seats in the south, with 43 per cent taken by women while a quarter of the Green Party's 16 councillors on both sides of the border are women.

Meanwhile, the success of two women in Dublin-West and Long-ford-Westmeath by-elections brought to 27 the number of female TDs in Dáil Éireann - the highest in the parliament's history.

Gabrielle McFadden retained a seat in Longford-Westmeath for Fine Gael, which had been left vacant by the death in March of her sister Nicky McFadden from motor neurone disease.

Ruth Coppinger of the Socialist Party took the seat in Dublin-West, replacing former Independent TD Patrick Nulty, who resigned earlier this year after it emerged that he had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage girl.

Last year's by-election in Meath east was won by Fine Gael's helen Mcentee, who replaced her father, junior minister Shane Mcentee, following his sudden death.

The south's environment minister Phil hogan has introduced a new gender quota law aimed at forcing political parties to field more women candidates in the next general election or risk losing a portion of their state funding.

Niamh Gallagher, co-founder of Women for election, said her organ-isation was "really encouraged" by the increase in female participation in last week's elections.

* WINNERS: Among the women who saw success on election day were (clockwise from top, left) Sinn Féin's Anne Marie Fitzgerald (Mid Tyrone council), Sorcha McAnespy and Debbie Coyle (Fermanagh and Omagh council), Alliance's Amanda Grehan (Lisburn and Castlereagh council), DUP MEP Diane Dodds and the SDLP's Joanne Donnelly (Fermanagh and Omagh council)