Ireland’s Social Democrats party has called for “equality of outcome” – i.e. ensuring that all individuals end up with the same results, rather than merely offering equal opportunities.
In a video posted to social media on Thursday, Social Democrats MEP candidate Sinéad Gibney – who until recently served as the head of Ireland’s Human Rights and Equality Commission – outlined the party’s belief in “equity”.
I read Equality Theory so you don’t have to … pic.twitter.com/xOxrkOZKZv
— Sinéad Gibney (@sineadgibney) April 11, 2024
“I’ve heard Simon Harris and other Fine Gael members talking a lot about equality of opportunity recently,” she said.
“…Fine Gael’s vision of equality [is] where the State has no obligation beyond offering opportunities to then make those opportunities accessible to people.”
She then went on to reference “Equality of Outcome” in “Equality Theory” – i.e. the Social Democrats’ position.
“This is the vision of equality that we, as Social Democrats, support: it says that absolutely, we offer the same opportunities, but then we go a step further.
“We identify challenges and barriers that people experience in accessing those opportunities, and as a State, we take action to remove those barriers, to dismantle the challenges, and let people have it.”
Notably, the comments on the video are turned off.
Gibney’s comments were a re-affirmation of a value in the party’s Constitution, which says that “equality of outcome” is “paramount.”
The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 introduced gender quotas into the Irish electoral system for political parties running candidates for election to the Dáil and Seanad. The quota was originally 16% in 2011, and over the years rose to 30% up until last February, when it increased further to 40%.
Previously, during the 2020 general election campaign, former party co-leader Róisín Shortall argued that the gender quota for politics was “low” at “just 30%”.
“We know women can offer so much to the political system, yet the bigger parties struggle to barely hit the, already low, gender quota of just 30%,” Shorthall said at the time.
The party also boasted at that time that they were “making history” by running “the largest ever percentage of female candidates declared for a General Election in Ireland”, with a gender split of 55% female and 45% male.
Among their candidates in the upcoming June local election is a transgender-identified individual who is running in Cork city.
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— Saoirse Mackin (@SaoirseMackin) December 1, 2023