The Social Democrats are the only party so far to have achieved its gender quota target for the parliamentary elections.

Under new rules, all parties will have to meet gender quotas in upcoming elections if they want to continue receiving state funding.

This means that at least 40% of their candidates in the general election must be women.

All major political parties have said they will reach the 40% target to maintain their funding.

Selection agreements are currently underway and most are expected to be completed by the end of next month.

Party headquarters will then have the opportunity to add candidates to the lists, if they deem it necessary.

The Social Democrats are the only party to have already achieved their goal, with 40% of the candidates selected so far being women.

The party has selected 15 candidates, including six women.

Other key party conventions will take place in the coming weeks, including in Wicklow and Limerick city, where MP Jennifer Whitmore and Councillor Elisa O’Donovan will be selected for Dáil tickets.

More than a third of the Labour Party’s candidates are women. Sixteen candidates are selected, six of whom are women.

A third of the candidates selected by Fianna Fáil are women; the party has selected 23 male politicians and seven are women.

A party spokesman said the number of women representing the party would increase.

“The remaining selection conventions will conclude in August and September. After the candidate selection convention, the National Constituency Committee will review the applications and, if appropriate, finalize the process,” the spokesperson said.

Sinn Féin said it had shortlisted 40 candidates, but did not specify how many were women.

Fine Gael is the party with the lowest number of women elected compared to men, with only 21% of its candidates so far being women.

The party has chosen 28 candidates for the general election, six of whom are women.

“In Fine Gael we are committed to increasing gender representation among our elected representatives at all levels,” a party spokesperson said.

They said only a third of the candidates have been selected for the election so far.

“We have consistently increased the number of women running for office at the national level,” they said.

“In the 2016 and 2020 general elections, we fielded 30% women, which is an increase from 16% in 2011.”

Sinn Féin said it had shortlisted 40 candidates, but the party did not say how many of them were women.

The Green Party did not respond to questions.

Since 2012, parties have been required to present at least 30% women and 30% men in general elections. This threshold was increased to 40% last year.

If the quota is not reached, political parties will lose half of the public funding they receive each year to ensure their operations.

There are no quotas for local elections or the Seanad.

Privately, politicians from all parties have recently spoken of the difficulties they face in convincing women to run for public office due to intense online surveillance and increased hostility towards politicians.