Ms Joan Donegan:

I thank the Senator for raising that matter. I was involved in those cases. We used the offices of the WRC for one of them. That was useful. The Senator is right, though, in that we should not have to go to third parties and such situations should be addressed at a local level. That is what I discussed earlier in terms of the kinds of situation where HR managers have their hands tied, in that they cannot move on or try to resolve issues without reporting further up the line. I am referring to the Department of Education.

There has been a great deal of good work done since the Sheehy Skeffington case, which transformed the landscape in terms of equality and was positive for female academics. The data have not come out yet, but due to parental duties and the like during Covid, it unfortunately looks like women will not have achieved the citations, book publications and so on that go towards supporting women in their career progression.

We will see things falling back again.