Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the impact of the reforms we are undertaking in the workers' rights area, including the move to a living wage, the introduction of sick pay and also the commencement of auto-enrolment and every worker having a pension fund to top up their State pension, and this will all be the reality by 2024, which is not that far away, this will help with the achievement of gender equality. It is a generalisation and a broad statement, but generally women tend to be in lower-paid jobs and less likely to have their own pension funds. These changes will help. This process will be happening in the long term but certainly by the time we retire, and most of us here are on the younger side of 50. These changes will mean that pretty much everyone, every worker anyway, will have an occupational pension in addition to a State pension. It will be people's individual pension right. There will not be a qualified adult or dependant in the way, as is the case with many retiring women now and that aspect will be important.

Turning to the barriers to women getting into leadership positions and onto company boards, I think this comes down to a degree of promotion bias. If we look at many organisations, and the public service is one example, it is possible to see many women in positions up to a certain point. When we get to the highest tiers, however, there are fewer. There are many reasons for this, but it is a problem. One thing I wish to avoid happening is putting in place a set of quotas but with the outcome that it is the same people who turn up all the time on boards. By the way, this happens with men as well as women, but we do not want it to happen in general. Therefore, we need a stream of people getting promoted. I think there is promotion bias in business now, for many reasons, but this needs to change. Equally, regarding returning to work, if someone takes time off as a mother to raise her family, and it is more likely to be a woman than a man in this situation, four or five years of experience and promotion will have been lost. We must account for that in some way, especially because we want and need people to return to the workplace.

On the Deputy's question concerning whether we could oblige companies to collect more information and report it, the short answer is "Yes".

On the question on whether we could oblige companies to collect more information and report it, the short answer is "Yes". However, we always need to have regard to the number of information obligations we impose on companies. It is fine for a big company with a human resources department. Fulfilling the obligations is just something that someone in a human resources department would do; however, for a small company, filling in all the reports on the regulations and submitting all the reports, where there is potential to be fined, prosecuted and shamed for not doing so, represents a real cost. We have to bear that in mind when we impose obligations on small companies that do not have a dedicated HR function.