All parties say they are determined to see more women elected in next year's local elections, writes Marie O'Halloran.
Maintaining or gaining control of local councils is the next big ambition of the major political parties as they face into elections in summer 2004.
Part of this ambition includes a pledge to increase the number of women vying for - and getting - elected to those council seats.
Labour has made the biggest claim of all - to have women make up 50 per cent of its candidates.
"Pat Rabbitte is making a big push to put women forward for local election," says Ms Kathleen Lynch, the party's Cork North Central TD.
"It's not a sudden conversion to feminism, but about recognising a political reality. From young women and grandmothers, we are all out in the world of work," she says.
Women have a greater influence economically and will have a greater say politically. This is a basic reality that all parties need to face, she adds.
Ms Lynch resigned her Cork North Central seat in June to comply with the ending of the dual mandate.
Her successor is a woman, and her running mate is also female.
"We are putting women forward as candidates in the expectation that they will get elected," she says.
"They're not going forward as 'sweepers' to take up the extra votes, or to glamorise the posters."
Ms Lynch defines the "photo-fit" election candidate as "late 20s or early 30s, preferably blond, female and articulate".
However, she refers to the local authorities' members' handbook, which has a photo of all 883 elected councillors.
"There are very few in there that fit that photo-fit. It's almost exactly the reverse," she says.
The TD is concerned that parties are putting up candidates to "glamorise" the posters. "Glamour is no substitute for substance, but it's great if you can have both."
Labour, with some 160 councillors in all, wants to double its representation. For Ms Lynch, that is a doubtful achievement.
"I think if we can aim to increase our representation by about one-third, we will be doing exceptionally well," she says.
If parties are ambitious to increase the number of women in the Dáil, current levels and indicators are not good.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, spelt it out clearly on International Women's Day. "It will take 370 years for the number of women in the Dáil to reach 50 per cent, at current levels," she said.
The figures for local authorities are not much better. In the 1999 elections 1,838 candidates sought election to 883 seats. Some 310 were women, of whom 134 were elected. This is about 15 women for every 100 councillors.
But the Taoiseach has promised that a major push will be made to increase female representation at local level in Fianna Fáil, where women make up 37 per cent of the party's membership but only 12 per cent of its councillors.
He pledged the party would put forward more women candidates than ever before.
Fianna Fáil has 268 members of local borough and town councils, as well as 358 county and city councillors, of whom 51 are women.
So far, 24 new female candidates have been selected at conventions and, according to the party, well over 40 of the sitting women councillors will go forward for re-election, already marking an increase.
Fifty-two Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members have to give up their dual- mandate seats.
About 20 conventions have been held so far to replace them, and about half of these have gone to family members, virtually all of whom are sons or brothers.
However, whatever difficulties Fianna Fáil has, female representation is a "huge issue" for Fine Gael.
Its decimation at the general election left the party with only two women TDs, Ms Olivia Mitchell and Ms Olwyn Enright, and one senator, Ms Sheila Terry.
"It's bad for the dynamic of the party - not that women are any better - but it's bad for the party when there are too many of one gender," according to Ms Mitchell.
She also warned that "you don't just wave a magic wand at election time".
At local level, however, things are better, with 87 women out of a total of 430 councillors, and the party is actively seeking more women.
"The last wave of women in Fine Gael was when Garret FitzGerald pro-actively encouraged women at all levels within the party. We need that again," said Ms Mitchell.