Fianna Fáil’s Brian Mohan says the gender quota was directly to blame for him not being allowed to contest his constituency’s selection convention.

He’s been giving evidence in his legal action against the quota, which requires parties to run a certain amount of women or face a financial penalty.

Brian Mohan was 8 when he handed out his first leaflet for Fianna Fáil, and became a member of the party as soon as he turned 16.

He was one of 3 people nominated to contest the Fianna Fáil selection convention for Dublin Central last October, but a diktat issued the month before effectively ended his chances.

It instructed members to select one female candidate, and when Mr. Mohan arrived at the Skylon hotel in Drumcondra, his name wasn’t even on the ballot paper.

The law says a party will have its State funding cut in half unless 30% of its general election candidates are women.
At the time, the court heard Fianna Fáil was struggling to find the numbers and stood to lose over €0.5 million a year. 

Mr. Mohan claims the law is unconstitutional and that the Oireachtas acted outside its powers by using State funding to influence an election. He’ll resume giving evidence tomorrow.