Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues who have spoken on the amendment. In particular, I acknowledge, as Senator Pauline O'Reilly said, that this is historic and I very much welcome the legislation. I will absolutely be working constructively with the Government to ensure it passes swiftly. I assure the Minister of that. I will not seek to delay it in any way. Reflecting on the comments of Senator Pauline O'Reilly, it is almost 50 years since we passed the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act in 1974, which was supposed to herald an end to all pay discrimination for women. Women in Ireland have been waiting a very long time to see that bear fruit in terms of equality of pay. This is the reality. That Act, which requires individual employees to take action when they experience individual discrimination, simply does not work to address collective pay inequity. This is why we need this wage transparency legislation, which we have seen work in other jurisdictions. It has been in place in some jurisdictions for many years. We have good models.

My Bill was introduced in the Seanad in May 2017, four years ago. That was already at a point when legislation was in place in Britain and companies here were all gearing up and preparing. Unfortunately, there has been a really unnecessary delay in introducing this. I do not in any way hold the Minister responsible for this because he has acted very swiftly on it. It is unfortunate that we have seen such a long delay and that it has contributed to the delays the National Women's Council has spoken about. The National Women's Council speaks about it taking 270 years to get to pay equality if we do nothing. I am very glad we are doing something. This is historic. The reason I have tabled the amendments is not to delay the Bill but rather to emphasise the urgency of making this law effective.