Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I urge the Minister of State to accept the Sinn Féin amendment, not to push this to a vote and to allow the passage of this Bill. We cannot wait any longer for the gender pay gap to narrow. There are gender pay gap deniers out there and we need to confront their denials with hard data. I do not want my daughter facing the gender pay gap but, equally, I do not want my son growing up in a country where the gender pay gap exists. All the data have shown that when the gender pay gap narrows society does much better. I urge the Minister of State to accept the amendment, allow the passage of this legislation and also to support it as it goes through the Dáil.

I will make brief reference to the interesting and insightful presentations in the AV room last July from two UK experts on its legislation. It showed some interesting findings that the principle has worked and given companies the boost they needed to address it. Many people did not even realise what the gender pay gap was and that it existed prominently within their organisations. It shows the value of this as one part of the overall fixing of the gender pay gap.

Colleagues have referred to other issues such as culture and childcare. We also spoke about the gender quota for political representation. We are taking our seat at the table. We need more women in the workforce, progressing through the workforce and taking their seat at the table in industry, commerce, law, healthcare and other areas. This Bill is, therefore, vitally important, particularly this year as we are celebrating getting the vote 100 years ago.We need to move forward with this. I know the Minister of State is committed to it, but introducing his own Bill will only slow things up and push that day further away from us. We cannot wait around any longer. We have waited long enough. I urge the Minister of State to accept Sinn Féin's amendment and the Bill.