Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We absolutely accept there is a gender pay gap. That is why we are bringing forward this legislation. There is no question about that. The most recent EUROSTAT figures indicate it is 14.4% in Ireland. That is not acceptable and these provisions are designed to address it. We all accept that the Bill will not solve everything but it will, for the first time, provide for a structured and steady flow of information on what is happening in individual employers.

To clarify, I am not at all suggesting that the Deputy's amendments would bring in additional discrimination. I am saying that by bringing the categorisation under which each individual employer must report down to very small levels within a workplace, there is a risk that individual employees may be identified. The whole tenor of the legislation is not to allow individual employees to be singled out. That is my concern with the Deputy's amendments. The additional information in terms of what creates the gender pay gap in a particular workplace can be teased out through some of the other reporting requirements that are set out in the legislation.

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