Largest number of women ever to contest General Election

This year's General Election will be contested by the largest ever number of women, with 248 in the running for a seat, according to figures from the Women for Election group.

The figure is an increase of 53% on 2020.

The figure is based off an analysis of nominations published by the Returning Officers across the 43 constituencies.

Nominations closed at noon yesterday, and saw 685 candidates overall in the running.

There are at least two women candidates running in every constituency.

The 2020 General Election was the first time that there were women candidates in every constituency.

This year’s General Election is the first with a 40% candidate quota for men and for women in political parties.

Failure to reach that quota means a reduction of 50% in any State funding for political parties, meaning hundreds of thousands of euro losses for major parties.

Currently, all parties with Dáil representation have met the candidate quota.

In the outgoing Dáil, there were 37 women TDs out of 160, making 23% of all TDs.

Fifteen of the 43 constituencies have no women TDs.

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Only 131 women have ever been elected to the Dáil since the foundation of the State, while 1,214 men have been elected.

Only 21 women have served in Cabinet in Ireland.

Countess Markievicz was the first in 1919 and the second was Márie Geoghegan-Quinn 60 years later in 1979.

No woman has ever served as Taoiseach, Minister for Finance and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

No more than four women have ever been in Cabinet at the same time.