TWO of the Republic's leading politicians have withdrawn from this weekend's MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal in protest at gender inequality.
The co-leaders of the Social Democrats Catherine Murphy and Róisín Shortall have said they will not speak at the summer school in the Glenties unless significant changes are made to address the gender-balance on the event's panels.
The politicians were responding to remarks made in today's Irish Times by Joe Mulholland, the founder and organiser of the school.
Mr Mulholland was quoted as saying “at times it is difficult to find the person with the correct aptitude for some of the topics that are discussed in sessions”.
Ms Murphy told RTÉ Radio 1 she was alarmed by the remark.
"When we accepted we didn't realise it was so imbalanced and I think the comments that Joe Mulholland has made that it's ‘difficult to find people with the right aptitude’ is really quite offensive," she said.
"We find there is actually an abundance of very articulate and well-informed women and it isn't that difficult to seek them out and to get them to participate."
Mr Mulholland later apologised for his comments.
"That was a totally wrong term to use and I apolgise for that and withdraw it," he told RTÉ. "It wasn't what I mean - maybe the right qualifications or whatever."
He added: "The number of women on the programme are not representative of the number of women who have been invited...but for different reasons were not available".
He said there was "at least one woman on every panel".
"I know that this is not enough of course and efforts have been made by me over the years to have a better gender balance," he said.
He said the panels also needed to be balanced in terms of the political and socio-economic background of the speakers.
