*Ø* Blogmanac | Ireland's all-male delegation unacceptable in Europe

Denis Staunton, Irish Times
29 January

"The Council of Europe has suspended the voting rights of the entire Irish delegation to its Parliamentary Assembly because Ireland's delegates are all men.

"The council agreed last September that each national delegation should include at least one woman, an instruction that all countries obeyed, except Ireland and Malta.

"The council wrote to all national delegations last November, reminding them that their team for 2004 must include members of both sexes. However, the Government Chief Whip, Ms Mary Hanafin, told the Dáil last Thursday that the all-male delegation, in place since the last general election, had been renominated ...

"The delegation will not be allowed to vote in the council's Parliamentary Assembly until its composition is changed to include a woman."

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