TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN is facing backlash for his decision to appoint just three women to his 15 member government. 

This evening, the full list of new ministers was confirmed in the Dáil by the Taoiseach. 

Just three women have been appointed to senior ministerial positions, one fewer than in the last government.

Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee is now Minister for Education and Youth, Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is Minister for Health, and Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley is Minister for Children and Disability.

In the last government the four women were: Helen McEntee, Heather Humphreys, Norma Foley and Catherine Martin. 

In this government and the last, the chief whip position is held by a woman. Mary Butler takes up the mantle from Hildegarde Naughton.

“You’ve got the gender balance wrong. You’re very male,” Mary Lou McDonald told the government in the Dáil after the announcements were made. 

“I have to say, as an Irish woman, leaving aside that I’m a parliamentarian, I find it kind of depressing that we see the absence of us,” the Sinn Féin leader said.

Ivana Bacik also hit out at the lack of representation for women, noting that there are now fewer women in this Cabinet than the previous one. 

Bacik also made the point that there are now “as many women as there are men called James” in ministerial positions (There are three ministers called James in this Cabinet – James Lawless, James Brown and Jim O’Callaghan). 

Deputy leader of the Social Democrats Cian O’Callaghan also hit out at Martin’s appointments.

“Do you not see anything wrong with this Taoiseach? It is 2025.

“Do you not think women should have equal representation at Cabinet level?” he asked. 

Outside the Dáil, Women for Election said the decision was “shocking and disappointing”.

Aldagh McDonogh, chair of the organisation, congratulated the women appointed but said the decline in women’s representation is concerning.

“Women’s perspectives are critical to shaping policies that reflect the realities of our society and economy, and their exclusion diminishes the strength of this Cabinet,” she said. 

Women for Election made the point that since the foundation of the State just 22 women have ever served in Cabinet, while 213 men have served in the same period.

They also note that it took 60 years from the appointment of the first woman to Cabinet, Constance Markievicz in 1919, to the second, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in 1979 and that there has never been a woman Taoiseach, Minister for Finance or Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“How long will Ireland have to wait for women to have an equal say in the governing of Ireland?” McDonogh asked.