Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Well said, Senator Garvey. If the Minister was a woman and woke up tomorrow in Luxembourg, it is a tad smaller than Ireland, with only 630,000 people, but it has the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the Minister was on his way to work, he would be pretty happy getting his croissant and espresso, because there is only a 1% difference in Luxembourg. There is nowhere in the EU where it is zero but in Luxembourg it is 1%. The gender pay gap refers to the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of men and women. This covers all levels and roles within companies. In Luxembourg, there is a good reflection of equality and representation of women.

If the Minister woke up as a woman in Estonia tomorrow, there is a gender pay gap of close to 22%. If using the time of year to show when women stop getting paid well, a woman is probably not getting paid after August. Here in Ireland, when do women stop getting paid compared with men? When a woman is rushing in the morning to get kids ready with her partner or maybe on her own, getting them to school and then going to work on time, or perhaps she is able to do hybrid working, in rural areas she would be extremely lucky to have after-school care and if not, she is racing to pick them up again at 1.30 p.m. Perhaps she might also be a carer. That often happens in rural areas because we have an ageing population. Perhaps she is looking after older family members. When do women in Ireland stop getting paid compared with men? As mentioned here, it is 9 November.

Why does this matter? With Covid and the lockdown, more women have lost jobs, including in hospitality, retail and travel. The lower paid roles, including childcare and healthcare, all impacted on women. Throughout a woman's working life, the gap widens the more time we spend in work. Childcare, family care and taking a break all have an impact on a career, and again the gap widens. If one is a single mother living in Ireland, one is five times more likely to be living in poverty and that means one's children and family living in poverty. We need gender equality now.

We need ways to support women to get back into the workplace, moving towards a living wage and affordable childcare. We have so many opportunities to reskill with more than 10,000 places announced today by the Minister, Deputy Harris, for Springboard+, and we also have ways for women and men to earn and learn with new careers with the plan for apprenticeships.

The PwC Women in Work Index pointed to how gender equality after Covid will regress to 2017. We have to double our efforts over the next few years to reach gender equality. Across the world, TheNew York Timesand The Financial Timesrefer instead of a recession to a "she-cession" because of the amount of women's jobs lost. The Government recently made commitments in the economic recovery plan to progressing this legislation and to preparing research for a living wage. In the report of the Irish Citizens' Assembly on gender equality, a chapter is dedicated to pay. Recommendation 32 states that targets should be set to reduce the hourly gender pay gap, currently 14%, to 9% by 2025 and to 4% by 2030 with a view to eliminating it by 2035, which would be lucky. That is just shocking.

This Bill means that companies of more than 50 employees will publish information on salaries according to gender and if there are significant differences, should publish a statement about why. We will have this Bill enacted firstly for companies larger than 250 employees and then in a tiered way for more than 150, then for small and medium enterprises of more than 50 in the third year, in both the private and public sector. To match statistics on gender pay gaps with EUROSTAT, which counts companies with more than ten employees, I would like to see this considered at a later stage.

We all need to make this count. If one is a student looking to go to college this year, one will be able to see how one's college holds up when it comes to gender equality. How is it doing with bringing forward female professors? If one is a consumer, how is one spending to support inclusive companies which are going the extra mile? If one is a star graduate looking to kickstart a career, one can now find out about the gender pay gap at the company one is looking at, which is knocking on one's door. If one is in HR, one knows that more diversity makes better decisions and more innovation. That has been proven again and again. One knows the challenge of large pay gaps. If one is a smart investor, one is looking at the gender pay gap.

For funding agencies across each Department, this now needs to become part of how we evaluate companies and businesses when applying for funds. We do not have equality. We need laws and legislation. That is why we need the Seanad at 40% female representation and that is why we need that in the Dáil. I fully support this Bill and ask the Minister to make it count.