Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank and compliment Senator Bacik and our colleagues in the Labour Party for bringing forward this legislation. I am glad to report that Fianna Fáil will support the Bill, which requires certain employers to publish information on the pay of their employees for the purpose of showing that there is no difference in the pay of male and female employees and that if there is, they have to give a reason.

The fact that we are discussing this subject and that Senator Bacik felt the need to introduce the Bill highlights clearly that more needs to be done in this area. I hope that, whatever form the regulation comes in, it will not put too much of an additional burden on employers. As Members here would know, approximately 3,000 large and medium-sized enterprise employers employ about 700,000 people. It is important, therefore, that whatever regulation is introduced, and it is much needed, is done in as simplistic a fashion as possible.

It was interesting to learn, while doing research for this discussion, that our situation has deteriorated in recent years. I am not sure whether Senator Bacik can enlighten us as to the reason for that. In 2012, the gap was as low as 8.3% but, unfortunately, according to the OECD, the most recent indicator indicates that the gap is now approximately 16%. That is strange, and I would welcome Senator Bacik's comments on the reason that might be the case.

Under the Programme for a Partnership Government, the Government committed to a range of measures to reduce the gender pay gap such as increasing investment in child care and providing locally delivered courses to facilitate women who want to return to work. While those measures are welcome, it is clearly not enough. We can see from data available that there is a gender gap not just regarding pay, but for women who try to get promoted to different areas. In boardrooms, for example, the percentage of women compared to their male counterparts is very disappointing. More work needs to be done in that regard. As Senator Bacik outlined, women with similar qualifications to men, even in the legal profession, do not seem to get the same remuneration for their work. That is strange because I am sure they are more than capable of doing as good a job, if not better, than their male counterparts.

I am delighted that Fianna Fáil is supporting the Bill. I compliment the proposers of it because it is a sensible measure to try to come up with a solution to this problem. They are using a softly, softly approach, which I hope employers will embrace, and I congratulate Senator Bacik on that. I hope that when we review this legislation, whenever it comes up for review, we will see clearly that it is working. When it becomes law, I am sure the Bill will address the issue we all want to see addressed, that is, the pay gap between female and male employees.