Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Minister for Justice and Equality will come to the House either later today or tomorrow to tease out those matters in some detail.

I want to raise a different issue, namely, the gap between the earnings of men and women, which worsened from 12% in 2002 to 14% according to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO. That means women are working for more than a month free of charge compared to men annually. One of the great benefits of joining the European Union was a requirement of equal pay for equal work, as well as the abolition of the naked bias, such as the law which required women to leave the public service on marriage. We brought in equal pay legislation in 1974 - a long time ago - but we still await pay parity. In the past, this was explained by differences in qualifications between men and women. Today, however, significantly more young women than men have third-level qualifications. Previously, we might have explained that the pay gap happened because many women stopped working while their children were in school. This is no longer the case for a great number of families.

There is a gender difference in the professions taken up by men and women which, in turn, might explain some of the differences in pay. There is a question, however, about whether we value women’s work as much as we do that of men. There is a real question as to whether men and women are being paid equally for the same work.

The Labour Party has progressed legislation through all Stages in the Seanad for the mandatory reporting by larger companies of the levels of pay by gender. The Government has promised its own legislation in this area but it has not been delivered. We are happy to work with the Government through all Dáil Stages to ensure this legislation can be swiftly enacted into law. We know mandatory reporting has worked in other countries and we believe it will work here. In some cases, companies may not even be aware of the extent of the wage differences in their own workforce. Ignorance is no excuse, however. The legislation which the Labour Party has put forward would remove that excuse.

Does the Government agree that a 14% gender pay gap is both unacceptable and unsustainable? Will it undertake to support the Labour Party's legislation, which has already been passed by the Seanad, and help it through the Dáil as the swiftest mechanism to address this important issue?

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