Historic meeting for women's group
It was history in the making once again last week at Longford Women's Link when a joint meeting of the Women's Manifesto Group and local area representatives took place at the centre.
The manifesto which was established eighteen months is one of the first of its kind in Ireland and is aimed at incorporating women into the local democratic process through equality, participation and diversity.
Following on from a number of key issues which were outlined to the meeting it was agreed that efforts would be made by local area representatives to establish if the Group would be entitled to representation on a Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) and if it could be included in future discussions on the local authority corporate plan.
It was agreed that a joint motion by local area representatives present on the night would be submitted at the next monthly meeting of Longford County Council to establish if such requests could be addressed.
The meeting heard that women from the group had attended a number of local authority meetings in the past and that its members "would like to engage more with our councillors".
"We realised after attending those meetings that we as women do have a say and that we need to be more involved at planning stage (corporate plan)," Beatrice Muldoon told the meeting.
"We have a strong interest in community groups and we hope that you (councillors) can fill us in on the how we can become more involved and what it is that we as a group must do to achieve that."
Cllr Gerry Brady (FG) said that he could never see a "difference between women's issues and other issues" and that as far as he was concerned all issues were the same.
He also pointed out that the local authority received 80% of its funding for voluntary and community groups from central government and that it was subsequently up to it "plan where that money went".
Cllr Martin Mulleady (FF) highlighted to the meeting that corporate planning was fundamentally "about making submissions" and that such an opportunity provided "a voice" for local people.
Cllr Paddy Belton (FG) then suggested that the Women's Manifesto Group should seek representation on an SPC as this could provide the organisation with an opportunity to have its members voices heard. Cllr Mae Sexton (Lab) said that it was "disappointing" to see that women still felt alienated from politics and from a system that represented them.
"A group of 300 women such as we have here, is a serious stand alone group and would, as far as I am concerned be able to get representations on SPCs," she said.
"The SPCs are in place, but I think that there is room for more representations and so therefore your strength in numbers is where you can benefit".
Cllr Padraig Loughrey (FF) said that local area representatives would "need to find out if a group could be added to the SPCs at this stage" and he said representatives had "not appreciated fully" the aims of the group until last week's meeting.
Cllrs Michael Carrigy (FG) and Victor Kiernan (FG) both proposed that a motion on the matter be submitted at the next local authority meeting to determine the matter and it was agreed that the motion would be a joint effort on the part of all elected representatives.
"The councillors are freely available to you," said Cllr Nolan. "I would have a women's perspective have no problem bringing women's issues to council level and indeed I have done so on many occasions in the past and have gotten support on those issues from my colleagues.”
Cllr Alan Mitchell (FG) then pointed out that the group might be interested in attending local authority area meetings in the future also.
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Sunday 12 February 2012
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