Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Today I will reflect on two issues, both pertaining to gender. Over the weekend the Leader may have seen the hashtag #IrelandTurnsPurplewhich was floating around social media with many photographs of locations around Ireland lit up with purple lights. It was quite stunning to see images from Cork to Dublin to Galway and everywhere. The reason was that Sunday was International Intersex Solidarity Day. To commemorate the day the Intersex Mapping Study in DCU launched the Ireland Turns Purple campaign. More than 60 landmarks, including Government Buildings and cultural institutions, turned purple to support the intersex community. The idea was to raise awareness and show support for the intersex community in Ireland and abroad. In October Ireland was one of 33 countries that signed up to the international joint pledge to promote and protect the rights of intersex people.

The DCU Intersex Mapping Study is mapping the lived experience of intersex people in Ireland. Hopefully, it will contextualise the existing knowledge of intersex people in Ireland and will inform law and policy designed to protect the rights of intersex people, protect them from discrimination and improve their lives.

According to the United Nations about 1.7% of the global population are intersex. For context, only about 5% of the global population have red hair. Obviously in Ireland the rate is a little higher at 10% with 40% of Irish people having the red hair gene. This indicates that many people are affected by the issue. I hope this weekend will shine a light both here and globally on intersex people and open a conversation about how we can support their lives and needs.

From yesterday until the end of the year the average Irish woman will effectively be working for free because the average Irish woman earns 14.4% less than her male counterparts. Yesterday was Equal Pay Day which ironically highlights the lack of equality in pay. This day is held every year, but the date changes in line with existing gender pay gap figures, getting closer to or further from the end of the year.According to EUROSTAT, Ireland's gender pay gap fell from 17.3% in 2007 to 14.4% in 2017. This is just below the European average of 14.9%. We still have a bit to go. Many of us who support this campaign recognise that it is quite a blunt tool. There are many different reasons for disparities, for example, certain sectors attract particular genders and women tend to take more caring roles, but that does not mean that we cannot strive to tackle the gender pay gap. One of the main things we could do relates to legislation passed by the Seanad in the last session, which now awaits passage through the Dáil. I call on the Government parties to speak to their colleagues about jigging that along to see if it could be passed through the Dáil quick smart.