Press release
Launch of new See Her Elected guidebook for women running in 2024 Local Elections
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
A new guidebook from See Her Elected to assist female candidates running in the 2024 Local Elections. ‘SHE: A Guidebook to Running in the 2024 Local Elections’ was officially launched via a live zoom webinar event in Longford Women’s Link today, Friday, November 12th.
The book was officially launched by well- known author and Irish Times Journalist Kathy Sheridan while Minister of State at the Peter Burke was also a guest speaker.
Minister of State Peter Burke said the new publication was an incredible guide and that he was passionate about seeing more women become involved in politics and making our council chambers more reflective of the society they serve.
“All speakers and organisations represented here today share a common goal, to ensure increased numbers of women and people from diverse backgrounds are elected to Local Government in 2024. As Minister, I have increased funding to Local Authorities to run training and coaching, to establish women’s caucuses and I also have established a new funding stream for political parties, with investment linked to stated goals and aims regarding female representation.
“I am determined to increase the pay and conditions of Councillors to ensure we can retain and support existing Councillors. We have increased the salary of City and County Councillors as of July this year and I am currently working on legislation which will see the introduction of maternity leave for Councillors, something which is urgently needed."
See Her Elected is a grassroots organisation built on the ethos of women learning and supporting each other with a specific focus on the Midlands and North West. SHE is a collaboration between Longford Women’s Link and 5050North West and the programme is funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The new publication aims to be a practical, user friendly guide for women who are considering running in the 2024 Local Elections. The guidebook offers a wealth of information with everything from organising your finances to selecting your kitchen table team and campaign manager, how to deal with the media, raising your profile, canvassing and so much more. To accompany the SHE Guidebook to Running in the 2024 Local Elections a series of free, online, interactive, one-hour workshops from See Her Elected will work through this guidebook chapter by chapter with groups of women in each county in the region. The first series of workshops is starting this November and running until May 2022.
Minister Burke Concluded:
“I commend SHE for this excellent guidebook, which will be available free of charge on the SHE website. I would urge any woman who has considered running for election or who feels they could make an impact in their community to read this guidebook and attend the free workshops. We know that our political system benefits from the inclusion of more women in our core political processes and it is time that society is reflected in our council chambers and indeed the Oireachtas.”
Ends