Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Pauline O'Reilly and Deputy Cronin have indicated they would like to contribute again. As Chair, I wish to ask a few short questions before we move to the second round. I thank colleagues for their forbearance.

I thank all the witnesses for their excellent and thought-provoking presentations. In a previous Dáil term, Professor Galligan appeared before the justice committee when we conducted our hearings on women's representation in politics. Our report on that in 2009 encapsulated her research in the five Cs, the obstacles women face on progress in politics.

Unfortunately, despite the introduction of quotas, we still see those obstacles - cash, childcare, confidence, culture and candidate selection - obstructing women's career progression. Still only 23% of our Deputies are women, so obviously we have a lot more to do. That has been recognised in the Citizens' Assembly recommendations.

My first question, which is to Professor Galligan, follows from what Senator Warfield said about a carrot-and-stick approach or incentive and sanction. On that interesting model that Senator Warfield proposes, what is the sanction or incentive for nominating bodies for the Seanad or private boards that do not reach quotas? I can see that with public boards there is an easier way of addressing that. Professor Galligan’s figures on public boards are interesting. She made the point that if all 165 vacancies were filled with women, we would achieve parity. That would be an important recommendation for the committee to consider. Professor Galligan also pointed out that there are a number of State boards - I think there were five - where there are no women, including the Pensions Authority. That too requires to be highlighted.

Professor Galligan made one very useful recommendation about sanctions, namely, that at local government level, the amount of incentive funding given to parties to promote women candidates could be reduced if quotas for local election candidates were not reached. That is good because when we tried to get local election quotas in previously, in 2011 and 2012 when the then Minister, Mr. Phil Hogan, was introducing the quota legislation, he made the point that there was no clear way of sanctioning parties because funding is tied to Dáil representation. Will Professor Galligan comment on that?

It is interesting in relation to recommendation 22 in the fuller submission that the sports governing bodies appear to be moving ahead of the Citizens’ Assembly timeframe on representation, whereas arts bodies have made less progress. Later in the term, the committee will hear from Waking the Feminists and we will ask its representatives about their ideas on that but I ask Professor Galligan to say a little on it.

I thank Dr. Russell from the ESRI for the detailed data she provided. I will home in on the gender pay gap work she has done. I have done a good bit of work on this and I introduced a Private Members' Bill on it before the Government initiative. I am interested in the data showing that the gender pay gap in Ireland has reduced to 11.3%. Will Dr. Russell comment on the reason for that? She pointed out that in Britain, where the legislation has been in place for longer, there has been a reduction in the pay gap. However, the reduction is not due to a movement of women into larger firms or towards higher pay, as we would have hoped, but, rather, is due to a shift in male wages, primarily a decline. She stated that in Denmark a reduction in the gender wage gap was also driven by lower male wages. Clearly, that is not a positive development. In other words, it is an equalising downwards. Will Dr. Russell comment on that? Are the two linked, or was that just a broader factor that was taking place in any event? What are the implications for the gender pay gap?

I want to clarify an issue related to shared leave versus use-it-or-lose-it leave, which we have discussed already, because it has been a long-standing issue in the discussion on parental leave provision. What is the best way to achieve gender equality? Is it to require that it be fixed so that each parent has a fixed entitlement? I have seen some arguments that suggest shared leave can be beneficial but generally the view is that is not so beneficial in driving equality. I ask Dr. Russell to comment. Perhaps Professor Galligan will respond first.