The perennial 'male, pale and stale' debate is shaking up Mayo politics

When outgoing Fine Gael MEP Maria Walsh hit out at Fianna Fáil last February over what she termed its 'male, pale and stale' approach to candidate selection for June's European Parliament elections, little did she realise the trigger effect it would have in her own back yard.

Three months on, her home county of Mayo has four female candidates, including herself, standing for the right to represent the Midlands North West constituency in Brussels and Strasburg.

Fianna Fáil added Castlebar Senator Lisa Chambers to its ticket after initially just selecting Offaly TD Barry Cowen, while former Green Party member, Achill's Saoirse McHugh, who attracted 51,019 first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election, confirmed she is running as an independent candidate, having resigned from the Green Party in 2020 over its decision to enter into a government coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

The fourth Mayo female contender is The Neale-based independent Michelle Smith, who has quite a big following on social media.

Now, all of a sudden, the lovely heather county has a fascinating battle unfolding between four very capable and articulate women with sure and certain views on how Europe and Ireland should evolve socially and economically over the coming years.

It should be noted there are a number of other women in the field, most notably Fine Gael newcomer Nina Carberry and Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, both of whom are strongly tipped to win seats.

It is important that the people of Mayo fully engage in the workings of the European Parliament because it is a county that has been neglected in terms of regional investment compared to other regions, as several studies have shown.

If Mayo is ever to achieve the level of parity it richly deserves, then we need one of our own batting for us in the corridors of power.

We as a people should no longer stand by and accept being treated as second class citizens by the power-brokers in Brussels just because we live on the western fringes of the continent.

This is a very crucial election for our county and must be treated as such.

Now, returning to the earlier male, pale and stale theme, it is reassuring to see a significant number of female candidates running in the local elections.

It is true that the gender balance within the elected ranks of Mayo County Council needs to be substantially increased from its current disappointing level of two out of 30, far from representative of the population.

This needs to radically change for the overall good of the county and, hopefully, it will happen in June as there is no shortage of bright, talented and innovative female contenders running for seats and who could change local democracy for the better.