Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Senator said, the proposed amendment to section 2 would reduce the reporting exemption from employers with more than 50 employees to employers with more than 20 employees and remove the incremental aspect of the roll-out. We spoke at some length on Committee Stage about the gestation of this Bill and the degree of engagement which took place between previous Ministers, employer organisations, trade unions and NGOs, especially those representing women. An approach was agreed which allowed for an incremental roll-out, specifically recognising that smaller companies would have a less well-developed human resources, HR, infrastructure and many would also be less well able to deal with the significant reporting requirements we are instituting with this legislation.

As Senator Bacik pointed out, employers have been waiting for this legislation for some time and, in fairness, they have been waiting for this version of it. There is a legitimate expectation in respect of how this legislation will be rolled out. To change that significantly now would be a major move, and one which I have considered. I have thought about the arguments put forward by the Senator and others in their contributions in this House in recent weeks. While the larger companies may have the requisite infrastructure in place to begin their reporting requirements immediately, I do not believe smaller companies will be so well prepared. One consideration in any legislation like this, and it is only one consideration, must be its cost and administrative burden on employers.

We are all aware, especially during these times of Covid-19, that many SMEs have gone through a difficult time in the last 15 months. Senator Seery Kearney drew attention to the research done by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, which highlighted the administrative burden that suddenly extending the scope of this legislation to all employers would have on smaller organisations, especially those without a designated HR capacity. It is my view that the proposal being brought forward here is unduly onerous at this stage. I also referred to the identification of the salaries of individual employees and the concern to ensure pseudonymisation was achieved. It must also be remembered that we amended the Bill on Report Stage in the Dáil to allow for a review of its overall functioning to take place after four years. That will be a good opportunity to consider whether we need to bring the thresholds down further.

Regarding Senator Byrne’s comment regarding those in firms with fewer than 50 employees being at risk of discrimination, it must be remembered that it is at all times against the equality legislation to discriminate on the grounds of gender. This legislation does not change that. It is concerned with information and the provision of specific information regarding differences in pay. It is never acceptable and definitely not legal to discriminate on the grounds of gender in respect of pay. I put that reminder on the record of the House.

We will have the opportunity to examine the impact of equality legislation as I recently announced a review. It is great legislation and has served us well but the review will be a useful exercise in looking again at the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000 to see how we can continue to strengthen and protect the most vulnerable groups in our society. I look forward to engaging with Senators on that review.