Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I omitted a section of my initial reply. There will be a meeting of the Euro Summit which is expected to take stock of recent developments at Eurogroup on banking union and capital markets. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, will attend the Euro Summit in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup and a report on last week's agreement on finalising reform of the European Stability Mechanism is an important step in strengthening the resilience and crisis resolution capabilities of the euro area. The Cabinet committee on Europe will then continue to meet as appropriate, including to discuss issues on the agenda of the European Council. I pay tribute to the Minister, in his capacity as president of the Eurogroup, for the important work he did there in advancing and finalising reform of the European Stability Mechanism.

Some of the questions that Deputies raised are not directly applicable to the work but I will take the question about the gender pay gap, the insufficient progress in addressing it and, indeed, the number of women in senior positions in the private and public sectors. The Government is committed to dealing with and progressing those issues and will work with Europe to advance and progress them. I will talk to the Minister concerned about when he will be in a position to bring the legislation to Committee Stage. I will come back to the Deputy on that point. Generally speaking, we know the situation regarding gender pay. The gender pay gap is not acceptable and needs to be rectified. It needs to be dealt with in a progressive and timelined way. The Government and I are committed to doing that.

Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to a joint European Union research group, as I understand it, to combat organised crime. I commend the European Union for organising a group to deal with organised crime across Europe because crime is now international and knows no borders. It is important that An Garda Síochána is a participant in any European Union project that will subsequently enhance its intelligence and insights into how organised crime works globally and how analytics can be used to combat organised crime. The question is should the Israeli police force be a part of that European initiative. That is the more relevant question to ask, rather than saying that the Garda should not be a part of a European consortium that is working on advanced mechanisms to defeat organised crime. My view is that the defeating of organised crime is critical for us in Europe. When one looks at what is happening in South America, for example-----

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