See Her Elected, an initiative aimed at getting more women from rural Ireland into politics, has said the impending general election is a "golden opportunity" to increase female participation in local councils.
New research and analysis of recent local election results - carried out by See Her Elected - found a significant electoral advantage for sitting councillors, regardless of gender.
Its analysis found that in the 2024 local elections, 85% of sitting candidates were re-elected, securing 72% of council seats.
This success rate was consistent across genders, with 86% of female incumbents and 88% of male incumbents being re-elected. This suggests that voters prioritise incumbency over gender when making their choices.
The research found 68% of co-opted councillors who ran were successfully elected, significantly outperforming new candidates with a 19% success rate.
See Her Elected said these findings highlight that even a shorter period in office can provide a substantial electoral boost.
Co-option is where a vacancy arises at local government level and is filled locally. It can happen for a number of reasons including resignation.
At Dáil level, where a vacancy occurs, there would have to be a by-election.
"The paper highlights that while co-opted councillors lack the experience of a traditional election campaign, they still benefit from increased name recognition and positive associations with their role," said Dr Michelle Maher, See Her Elected's Programme Manager who undertook the recent research paper.
"The advantage of incumbency stems from several factors, including name recognition, established networks, and a track record of community engagement," she added.
See Her Elected said while being a sitting councillor benefits both men and women equally, it does however present a challenge for increasing female representation, given the pre-existing gender imbalance at local government level.
Dr Maher pointed to a number of examples where female candidates are met "with a wall of men" getting re-elected over successive local election cycles.
She highlighted the fact that the same male sitting councillors had been re-elected in Castleisland, Co Kerry; Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois and Killaloe in Co Clare over a number of election cycles.
"The over-representation of men in incumbent positions means that the majority of seats won by incumbents continue to go to men," she said.
Roscommon Independent Councillor Emer Kelly was co-opted onto Roscommon County Council in May 2021.
"That gave me three years in the councillor role to learn the process, to build rapport with the local community and really get funding into local communities and progress made on projects in my area," said Ms Kelly.
"I think when people are looking for a candidate to vote for, be it at local or a general election, they are going to vote for the candidate on the ground doing the work and who they can see doing the work," she added.
Cllr Kelly then went on to make history at this year's local elections by becoming the first female elected in the Athlone electoral area of Roscommon.
"I think being co-opted for three years and having that exposure and experience of being on the council stood as an advantage to me in the local election because I had built relationships with people and the community," said Cllr Kelly.
"People could see that I was completing projects, that I was involved with them getting funding and getting projects up and running.
"It gives you more recognition and gives you time to show people what you are there to do and what you can do as a local representative," she added.
See Her Elected said the upcoming general and Seanad elections offer a golden opportunity to improve gender balance.
"Political parties talk a good talk about supporting women in politics, but now is the time to walk the walk. The co-option process is a real and immediate opportunity to demonstrate commitment to gender equity in local government," said Dr Maher.
Claire McGing, an academic researcher on gender and politics, said 120 sitting councillors have declared they are going to contest the general election so there will be vacancies at local level.
"In the last local election cycle, 52% of co-option were female so it was a way of bringing up seat numbers and many of those women contested the election and secured their seats," she said.
However, Ms McGing said there are some drawbacks, pointing to research she carried out with Dr Pauline Cullen of Maynooth University prior to the local election.
"It showed, out of the women who were co-opted and who responded to our survey, that although there was a genuine demand to get women into council through co-option, there was a patchiness when it came to induction and support.
"So if it's going to be done, and it should be done, it has to be done in combination with a number of other supports.
"Issues like induction, training, administrative supports and broader issues around dealing with online and in person abuse, remuneration and pay and wider working conditions.
"From our research we know there were cases of women who were co-opted between 2019 and 2024 and who didn't contest for that seat because the pay wasn't adequate.
"We've a lot of data showing that we've many councillors doing a triple shift, not just the council work, but other paid work and many have caring responsibilities and for all of these reasons they decide not to run.
"We have to move beyond just recruiting women and we have to move into a space of retention.
"Once we get women into place, how do we keep them there and how do we ensure they are supported to make sure they contest for local seats and contest for Dáil seats?"
Ms McGing said co-option can also improve overall diversity in our chambers.
"Of the co-opted councillors in the last election cycle, a very low number of those would have come from a migrant background," she said.
"Members of the travelling community are practically invisible in local government and again this is a very good route to address that," she added.
