Ms Bernadette Phelan:

Dr. McHugh referenced that the non-financial reporting directive includes reporting on gender at board level. As a norm within what good practice in a business looks like, it is about publicly reporting on the gender pay gap. I believe that will become more normal within business and if a business wants to be perceived as a responsible one, it is about moving voluntarily into that space. It is quite powerful to see companies making voluntary declarations.

The other piece I would add is that businesses very much understand that to sell the right service or deliver the right product, they have to mirror their customer base. Through work we are doing around an initiative called The Inclusive Employer blueprint, it is very much about attracting and retaining talent. There is very strong data around the business case for having good gender mix, good ethnic mix and good socioeconomic mix in terms of being innovative and creating the right products. As the evidence becomes clearer, leading businesses are accepting that the "why" of needing to have diversity is now gone, and there is a real focus on how we do it. We would see many very progressive practices happening in the businesses we work with. As we have more leaders being comfortable standing up and saying what they want, more will follow, like Diageo. I believe businesses are extremely mindful of it and the reporting practice will really help us within that.