Dr. Claire Keane:

When we looked at the gender impact of policy by economic status, we did not see massive differences. If men and women were working at the same rates - if the female participation rate was the same - we would not expect to see massive impacts because of gender. There is a gender pay gap and women are more reliant on minimum wages than men but this goes from the gender impact to wider gender budgeting. Wider gender budgeting would consider the fact that in Ireland there are lower female participation rates than for males and we are slightly below the OECD average, particularly for women with children, so it is about delving into who are the groups that are not participating. We know women are now as educated or more educated than men, so we do not believe education is driving this. Much focus has been put on childcare costs and we know that within the OECD we have some of the highest childcare costs, particularly for lone parents, so it is good that the affordable childcare scheme is being introduced. We know that if childcare is subsidised, it should be done in a flexible manner and enough hours should be provided to have a knock-on effect on the labour supply of women.

We can also consider wider policy. We all love to speak of Sweden as "Utopia", as I would call it, but it has sharing of parental leave and a "use it or lose it" policy. There is a certain amount of parental leave and if the father does not use it, the mother loses out as well. That has been shown to increase female participation rates and, perhaps, reduce discrimination. If we feel that women will perhaps be discriminated against if they are of child-bearing age, or if men of child-bearing age are just as likely to be out of work as well, it will equalise the issue and improve access for women to the labour market. It would perhaps reduce discrimination in the workforce as well. The public sector is always seen as a sort of role model for the private sector in offering work-life balance initiatives. It will become more important in an economic sense, as the labour market gets tighter, not to have women outside employment if they want to be in work. There are barriers.

Along with childcare there is elder care. If we know that many carers are caring for elderly relatives or parents, we should ensure there is access to home care packages to help women into employment as well.