Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was back soon after that, but not quite two days later. The Bill is welcome. Senator Kelleher touched on an important point. We need to diagnose the problem first. Sometimes, when I speak about the gender pay gap with people, they seem to think that it does not exist, that it is some kind of figment of our imagination or that it is not actually happening. However, it is happening. People are keeping it to themselves because many women are embarrassed that they are being paid less than others who are often junior to them in companies. This is a good way of highlighting the issue, diagnosing the problem and then doing something about it.

The next steps are important. Once we have the problem diagnosed and we can see where it arises, then we can bring companies along. As legislators, we need to focus on the two main policy areas of child care and shared parental leave. Affordable child care is something I have been speaking about for a long time. It really needs to gain traction if we are going to close the gender pay gap. Many of the women I speak to who have taken prolonged periods out of the workforce never wanted to do so in the first place. They find when they go back that they are at a far lower level and their bargaining position is far weaker. Many never wanted to take five or six years out but they were forced to do so due to the high cost of child care in this country. If we had a proper focusing of the Government mind on providing subsidised child care throughout the country in every community, then I believe we would see the gender pay gap narrowing.

Shared parental leave is essential. Let us suppose an employer is hiring or promoting employees. If the organisation can look at a male and female employee in the same light, in the sense that they both could take time off to look after young children, then I think we would see far less prominence given to men in promotional circumstances. I very much welcome and support the Bill.