Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and the Chair for their points. On the wider issue of work-life balance, there are a number of initiatives that we are looking at, particularly in the context of work and gender. As the committee is aware, in the previous Dáil the gender pay gap legislation made significant progress, reached Report Stage. However, when the new Dáil reconvened, it was put back onto the Order Paper and the legislation was not allowed to fall or die, so it only remains for Report and Final Stages to be completed, and work is ongoing in my Department at the moment. I hope that when I next come before the committee, I can give a more precise update on that. There is not much work to be done on the Bill so I will push to get it over the line. It will be significant legislation because it will mean that companies and agencies will have to give information on the gender pay gap among their employees. That will shine a light on the public and private sectors as regards the differences in pay between male and female employees. Once we have that information, policymakers can respond and moral pressure can be brought to bear to rectify the still very egregious gender pay gap that we see in large parts of society.

On the issue of parental leave, I am working on a memorandum on that today. We will bring that memo to Cabinet soon. It will increase the time that each parent of child can claim. At the moment, each parent can claim two weeks' paid parental leave in addition to maternity leave, and it is paid at a rate of €245 per week. The legislation will increase that from two weeks' leave to five weeks' leave per parent, thus providing an additional three weeks' leave per parent. Our goal is to get that measure through the Oireachtas and legislated for early next year, with a view to having it fully operational by April 2021. We are talking with the Department of Social Protection to investigate the possibility of bringing it forward to March and have it fully operational at that stage. I am hoping we can get the legislation through the Oireachtas as quickly as possible. It is a fairly small Bill and we may have a situation where people can take this leave as soon as the legislation is passed, and maybe claim the payments back from the Department of Social Protection subsequently. If we need to go that way, we will do so in order that people can be guaranteed the leave even earlier than March 2021. I hope to bring a memorandum on that point to Cabinet very soon. I am happy to keep Deputies updated on that issue.