Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Senator Phelan wants my support for the principle of equal pay to be stitched into the legislation. On this occasion, he will have to be satisfied with it being placed on the record because I am advised that it is not appropriate to write the principle into primary legislation, nor has it been, to the best of my knowledge, anywhere else.

As I stated on Committee Stage, the proposal is aspirational in character and, therefore, not appropriate to primary legislation. However, the provisions of the gender equality legislation introduced in the 1970s were enhanced and extended by the 1998 Act to include eight additional discriminatory grounds. Specific provision was made to enshrine the entitlement to equal remuneration across all nine grounds. Moreover, strong equality promotion and enforcement structures were established in the form of the Equality Authority and the Equality Tribunal. Both of these statutory bodies are now fully functioning and are having a real impact in terms of implementing the principles laid down in the legislation.

The Senator referred to section 24. I do not accept that this section represents any sort of statutory underpinning of any form of discrimination. It is, as I will argue when we reach it, merely an enabling provision to encourage employers to employ people with disabilities.