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Mr Peter Burke TD, Minister of State for Local Government and Planning today announced that he has approved funding of €23,090 for the National Women’s Council of Ireland to develop a number of toolkits. The first toolkit will help develop family friendly and inclusive Local Authorities, whilst the second toolkit will be for political parties to address hostility on social media platforms.

“I am delighted to once again be in a position to continue to support the National Women’s Council of Ireland in our shared goal of increasing the participation of women in local government,” said Minister Burke.  “Previous research has identified a number of barriers to women entering politics, among them the need for more family orientated local authorities and the scourge of online abuse targeting our political representatives, particularly women.”

The National Women’s Council is the leading national representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland, and has been a key partner of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in recent years.

The funding announced today will support two projects: first, the National Women’s Council of Ireland will work with local authorities and relevant stakeholders to develop a toolkit to support local authorities to introduce measures which make the role of councillor more manageable for individuals with family and caring commitments. The second project will examine the policies political parties currently have in place to manage social media abuse, including hateful, sexist and gendered content. Arising from the results, a set of common goals and guidelines on how political party structures can better respond to social media abuse will be developed, in the form of a toolkit for use by all political parties.

The Minister concluded: “My Department will continue to work closely with key stakeholders and organisations, such as the National Women’s Council of Ireland, towards the Local Elections of 2024. The funding provided today will support two very practical but very necessary projects.  I believe that creating an environment that not only actively encourages women to run for local elections, but also retains and supports them once elected, is imperative in today’s society.”

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