Mr. Donal Swan:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear today on behalf of the National Women’s Council. I am joined by my colleague Kate Mitchell, our head of development and policy. The National Women’s Council is the leading representative organisation working for women’s rights and equality across the island of Ireland. We work together with our almost 200 member groups and a growing community of individual supporters.

We welcome the publication of the general scheme of the equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill 2024, this consideration of the scheme by the committee, and the wider and ongoing process of the review of Ireland’s equality legislation. It is critical that the issues that impact women in all their diversity be central within this process. This is particularly necessary for those communities that have historically been excluded and marginalised. This legislation should be treated as a significant priority for the Government and the Oireachtas and should be progressed with urgency.

The general scheme of the Bill contains a number of very welcome amendments to the equality legislation. In addition, there are key issues that we recommend should be included in the Bill going forward. The addition of a provision to provide for intersectional claims on the basis of multiple grounds under the equality legislation is very welcome. The Act is currently out of step with many women’s lived experiences of multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination, which often occur as a response to their identity as a whole and cannot be distinctly and artificially categorised into separate grounds. The repeal of section 19 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act and the abolition of differential pay rates for disabled people are very welcome. The extension of the time limit relating to the Maternity Protection Act is very important for women who would have found themselves barred from taking a claim upon returning from their maternity leave. The implementation of aspects of the pay transparency directive is also welcome, although it does highlight the need to strengthen the gender pay gap reporting structures that were brought in under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021. This should include measures to ensure that organisations are creating action plans to close their gender pay gaps and sanctions for non-compliance.

While many of the aspects of the Bill are welcome, there are some significant omissions in areas that are vital in strengthening gender equality. We hope these will be included before the Bill is introduced to the Oireachtas. I refer particularly to the addition of socioeconomic status as a tenth ground and necessary amendments to the gender ground to include gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics and to the family status ground to include non-resident carers providing care and support. There is also a need to include provisions around access to justice. NGOs representing people and communities that come within the discriminatory grounds should be able to bring a claim in their own name rather than depending solely on the existing individual complaint model.

We welcome this Bill as important legislation in updating and strengthening our equality legislation. We welcome the committee’s important work at this stage and look forward to engaging with members.