David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Labour Party on introducing this Bill. I do not accept the reasons the Minister of State gave for not accepting it. I heard Deputy Lisa Chambers outline the reasons the Government should support the Bill. There are various stages in legislation that enable us to perfect Bills. We have introduced many Bills to improve workers' rights and Fianna Fáil did not support them for exactly the same reason. That party seems to support the softer Bills but not Bills that make a real and tangible difference. While I do not say this Bill does not do that, it simply puts an obligation on employers to publish information.

It is easy to support such Bills but there are more fundamental Bills Fianna Fáil would not support.

According to CSO figures, on average, women are paid 14% less than men. Those figures are based on gross hourly earnings, and that gap has been growing. At the same time, the CSO figures show that more than 55% of all women aged between 25 and 34 years had a third level qualification in 2016 compared with 43% of men in the same age group. Even though it seems that women tend to be more highly educated and qualified than men, that is not translating into earning power.

It is obvious from all the data and the figures which have been presented by the Labour Party spokespeople, my Sinn Féin colleagues and the Fianna Fáil Teachtaí also that there is a problem. Not enough is being done. This Bill would go some way to at least identifying the problem and I do not see why the Minister of State's Government is not in a position to support it.

See this speech in context