Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this very important issue. The PwC index is very interesting where it shows that the level of inequality - 14% less pay for women than men - is up from the figure in 2014 when it was 12%. It is 18% in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. An interesting comparison is that Iceland has had equal pay for the genders since 1961 - 57 years of neutral pay rates. Interestingly, it is not a member of this great European Union - the great club - that is supposed to have brought women equal pay in the first place, an argument I have often refuted, and the statistics are before us in terms of Ireland, Britain and the rest of Europe.

Self-professed experts often say there is no such thing as a pay gap and that it is a fiction. They argue that differences in pay for the same work is illegal, that we have equal pay legislation across the European Union so how can there be a gender pay gap. The reality is that some employers will brazenly break the law. However, much of that gap is structural because women end up in the jobs and professions that are overwhelmingly female and overwhelmingly undervalued by this society. It is not incidental that happens. It is because of the structured attitude of society to the sort of work women do, such as cleaning, caring, maintenance and hands-on work that is undervalued in comparison to the muscular, more physical sector in which men generally work.

I believe that gap worsened during the years of austerity under the measures the proposers of the Bill brought in. For example, the Labour Party, in government with Fine Gael, enforced legislation on workers' rights, the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation, of which we are still feeling the impact, where workers in this House and across the public sector, both men and women, earn 10% less than people they work alongside. It is one of the reasons teachers and nurses are threatening strike.

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