Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Next Monday is equal pay day. We look forward to the #WorkEqual campaign run by the Dress for Success group. Equal pay day underlines the inequality between men and women and their pay. The average pay gap in Ireland is 14.4%. Technically, Monday, 9 November is the day on which women stop being paid for the work that they do. Women are disproportionately over-represented in lower paid positions and under-represented in the labour market. They take on the bulk and burden of care and domestic roles and the struggle to juggle everything. Deeper issues are at play around gender stereotyping and discrimination, especially for women from minority groups.

This Government is deeply committed to changing this, as was the previous Government, and to encouraging the share of care between both parents. Paid paternity leave and a new paid parent's benefit were introduced in this year's and last year's budgets but there is still more work to do. Yesterday, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform announced a new spending review which noted that the uptake of paid paternity leave stands at 50% and that of new parent's benefit is relatively low. These low rates are associated with the failure by employers to top up salaries. This also reflects other challenges I often see with parental leave, including employers not being sufficiently flexible and insisting that parents take all their parental leave in one go instead of giving them the flexibility to take it as part of a three-day or four-day week over a period. These are the practical issues that hinder our progress in sharing the care. The EU work-life balance directive is an opportunity for the Minister to review all these issues - access to parental leave, work flexibility, and the right to request - together.