There has been a dust-up over women in government. If you want to know how the media and some politicians operate here in clown town the confected row about the female representation in the Cabinet and the Dáil is a good example. Ireland finally has a new government but someone, somewhere decided there were not enough female Ministers in there. “On Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the members of his Government – with three women appointed to senior ministerial positions, one fewer than in the last Government.”
The Irish Independent pontificating that “Move to greater gender equality is demeaned with so few female ministers.”
The Irish Times: “It’s 2025 – not the Stone Age’: Government to face extra pressure to promote female TDs as junior ministers. Labour leader Ivana Bacik said there were the same number of Ministers with the name James as there were women.”
I am pretty sure there was no representative government let alone gender equality in the Stone Age but I digress.
Jennifer Whitmore who is a Social Democrat TD for Wicklow, explained it all on the telly box for us. “A really strong government, a government that makes the best decisions will be a government that looks like the communities it is serving.”
Only this isn’t true. A really strong government is a conservative government that seeks to have a small state. It is one that keeps taxes low, the border strong, and provides basic infrastructure that will not crumble when the first storm hits. What it looks like, is neither here nor there.
Does anyone really believe this twaddle anymore that governments or corporations or the fire service in California must look like the communities it is serving? I thought this DEI nonsense got binned when the wild fires were ripping through LA as the “diverse” fire service looked on helplessly.
On a minor level, is this something you even apply in your everyday life? Do you want your brain surgeon or your oncologist to look like you? No, you don’t. If you really pushed me and I had the luxury of choosing my brain surgeon, I would like him (and I mean him) to look a bit foreign. Maybe Indian and preferably Sikh. I’m not sure why.
Hand on heart if my brain surgeon walked in and his name was one of those unpronounceable Irish names I’d start to panic. There I admit it. In fact, even if his name was Darragh, I’d be heading for the door. Teachers are called Darragh. GAA players are called Darragh. Comedians are called Darragh. Brain surgeons are not.
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Nor might I add, do we apply this test of ‘the best teams are those that look like the communities they serve’ to your ESB repair crew. Do you honestly think that the ESB repair crews or indeed the foreign crews that have come over to reconnect the country folk to the grid, look like the communities they serve? No they do not, especially as some of them are French. And most of them are men.
Do you think the women are out there felling the trees and branches and climbing up those massive poles to reconnect Mary to the grid, risking their life. Knowing that one wrong move could result in them being electrocuted, burned like a crispy piece of bacon? How many women are banging down the door for this job? Hardly any.
And rarely do you see a campaign to make the following teams ‘look like the community they serve’: the bin men (or refuse collection engineers as I like to call them), plumbers or even builders. Those risky, dangerous jobs are left to the men and rarely is there a complaint. It is the more comfortable office jobs that the feminists have their eye on. And good luck to them. But just be honest – this is about seeking power and status, as well as a warm cup of tea. It is not about all round equal representation in all sectors.