Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to amendment No. 14, which is the exact same as the Labour amendment. It seeks to delete the term "50 employees" and replace it with "20 employees". I am going to make many of the points Senator Bacik has made. We just want to get a truer reflection of what is happening by widening the number and scope of businesses which will be obligated to keep this information about their employees. I do not think this is a huge burden. In the long run it is important for us to have this data. We need a truer reflection of the inequality that exists in the workplace and I do not think we will have pushback from industry. We are actually excluding companies that want to do this as well. I am sure there are many businesses which are very proud about the cultures they have developed, be that making clear their positions in various referendum campaigns or flying Pride flags and making clear their backing for equality. Consequently, we should include as many businesses as possible to get a truer view of what is going on and the inequality that exists.