Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on amendment No. 4 proposed by Sinn Féin. We need to be careful that we are not saying there is anything inherently wrong with more of one gender than another being in part-time employment. Throughout the State we can look and survey and have CSO figures to state there are more women than men in part-time employment and then take this into account in how we put forward policy proposals to ensure women are supported in these roles. I do not believe there is anything wrong with a company having more part-time employees in one gender than another. I would hate to think we would put something into a Bill that would make a company feel they were doing something wrong and, therefore, mean women could not take up part-time employment to the extent they want. This is the objection I have to amendment No. 4.