Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate and to respond on behalf of the Government, specifically the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton. The explanatory and financial memorandum to the Bill does a good job of explaining its purpose and context. It identifies three uses for the information to be published by employers who come within the scope of a scheme. The primary purpose is to provide information to diagnose the causes of the gender pay gap in organisations so as to inform the formation of public policy.

I assume this would require the compilation and analysis of responses from all employers subject to a scheme and for such analysis to be available to the Government for policy purposes. The second use is by employers, providing them with the means to benchmark their gender pay gap against that of their competitors. I note that this would require employers' information to be publicly available. The third use is by IHREC, whereby a scheme would provide it with an additional source of information on differences in the pay of male and female workers employed by an organisation. Such information could inform a decision by IHREC to use its existing powers to invite employers to carry out equality reviews and to prepare and implement action plans. It could also inform a decision by IHREC to carry out such equality reviews and action plans on its own initiative. When the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, spoke on Second Stage in the Seanad on this Bill, he mentioned his concern that we should not enact legislation in this area without having full consultations first with interested stakeholders, in particular with employers and trade unions. We need to ensure the legislation asks for the right information, that it is reported in the most efficient and useful manner and that it will produce the best indicators for future policy direction, not only for national policy but crucially also to support analysis and inform change where it is most needed at the level of the individual employer. I am pleased to say that in the intervening period there has been intensive consultation on the subject. In August 2017 the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, launched a public consultation on the gender pay gap which resulted in 38 written submissions. In January of this year the Minister and the Minister of State for Justice and Equality, Deputies Flanagan and Stanton, and the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, hosted a very successful symposium, 'Rising to the Challenge: Addressing Ireland's Gender Pay Gap'. The Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, has met the social partners and officials of the Department have held additional meetings with them and are in ongoing contact on the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2018. Deputy Stanton has also met with other organisations with an interest in the subject and will take on board their concerns and suggestions insofar as it seems appropriate.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality invited the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, IBEC, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and the National Womens Council to its pre-legislative scrutiny session on 21 November and if Deputies consult the official report of that session, when it is available, they will see the views of these organisations on the issues which arise. The present Bill covers similar ground to the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2018 which is at an advanced stage of drafting and on which the report of the Oireachtas joint committee is awaited. The Government's preference is for its Bill to proceed to enactment because very extensive amendments to the present Bill would be needed to make it acceptable. The long and short titles would need to be amended as with the substance of the Bill. We do not believe the making of rules on gender pay gap reporting as an IHREC function and therefore we do not think it appropriate that the Bill amends the IHREC Act 2014 but rather that it amends the Employment Equality Acts which already cover discrimination on the grounds of gender in pay.

The 2016 programme for Government said that the Government would promote wage transparency by requiring companies of 50 or more to complete a wage survey. We await the report of the Oireachtas committee on the Bill and we will publish our own Bill after that. Nevertheless, I wish to welcome the initiative of the Labour Party and in particular its Seanad Members in tabling this Bill and I look forward to the enactment and the coming into operation of legislation providing for gender pay gap reporting as soon as possible.

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