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

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 5, to delete lines 29 to 35 and substitute the following: “(6) (a) Regulations made under this section may require the employer to publish information in respect of a public body.

(b) In this subsection—

‘Act of 1998’ means the Education Act 1998;

‘Act of 2014’ means the Companies Act 2014;

‘board’ has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1998;

‘company’ means a company formed and registered under the Act of 2014 or an existing company within the meaning of that Act;

‘education and training board’ means an education and training board established under section 9 of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013;

‘enactment’ has the same meaning it has in the Interpretation Act 2005;

‘information’ includes data;

‘public body’ means—

(a) a Department of State,

(b) the Attorney General,

(c) the Comptroller and Auditor General,

(d) the Revenue Commissioners,

(e) the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland,

(f) the Commissioner of Valuation,

(g) the Garda Síochána,

(h) the Defence Forces,

(i) a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001,

(j) the Health Service Executive,

(k) an education and training board,

(l) a recognised school established and maintained by an education and training board,

(m) a board of a recognised school established and maintained by an education and training board,

(n) a body established—

(i) by or under an enactment (other than the Act of 2014 or a former enactment relating to companies within the meaning of section 5 of that Act), or

(ii) under the Act of 2014 (or a former enactment relating to companies within the meaning of section 5 of that Act) in pursuance of powers conferred by or under another enactment, and financed wholly or partly by means of moneys provided, or loans made or guaranteed, by a Minister of the Government or the issue of shares held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government,

in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made,

(o) a body that is wholly or partly funded directly or indirectly out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas or from the Central Fund or the growing produce of that Fund and in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made, or

(p) any subsidiary of, or company controlled (within the meaning given by section 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997) by, a body to which paragraph (i), (j), (k), (n) or (o) relates and in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made;

‘public service pension scheme’ has the same meaning as it has in Part 4 of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017;

‘recognised school’ has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1998.”.

The Bill currently provides at subsection 6 that regulations may be made in respect of an employer that is a public body. The proposed amendment provides for a more comprehensive and complete definition of a public body. The amended definition of what encompasses a public body is based on section 10 of the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 and the text of section 10 of that Act was chosen as it is the most complete and up-to-date definition of a public body that we currently have on the Statute Book.

Deputies may note that at (a) the definition states "a Department of State" rather than "a Minister of the Government" as provided for in section 10 of the Data Sharing and Governance Act. This move away from the precedent definition is to ensure that where a Minister has responsibility for one or more Departments, and we know quite a number of Ministers do so nowadays, an individual report from each individual Department is required. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure Departments and agencies will meet the criteria for reporting under the Bill and will report individually. It is important we can use the individual report from each Department so we can more thoroughly and precisely identify where gender pay gaps exist. I seek the House's support for this amendment.

See this speech in context