Celebrating new Voices for Change at Local Level

Published: Thursday, July 18, 2019

More women candidates than ever before ran in the Local Elections 2019. To celebrate their achievements and discuss their leadership journey, NWCI invited a diverse panel of newly elected women Councillors and women canidates to our AGM morning event, New Voices for Change, 7 June 2019.

Minister John Paul Phelan who has special responsibility for local government and electoral reform gave the keynote. Other speakers included Hazel Chu, Green Party, Dublin City Council; Catherine Coffey, Workers' Party, Cork; Annie Hoey, Labour Party, Meath County Council; Andrea Dalton, Fianna Fail, Carlow County Council; Punam Rane, Fine Gael, Fingal County Council and Sharon Nolan, Social Democrats, Galway. Speakers highlighted the need for greater support for women candidates in the local elections and the need to take bolt action, like the introduction of a gender quota for candidates, to ensure greater representation of women on City and County Councils across Ireland. 

Dil Wickremasinghe, Journalist and Co-Founder of Insight Matters Mental Health services, chaired the lively discussion with speakers and the audience.

The event was followed by NWCI's Annual General Meeting where members adopted 15 motions on a range of issues, including women's economic independence, health, violence against women, housing and homelessness.