Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for confirming again that IHREC will retain the power to intervene of its own accord and of its own motion. That is very important. It may prove to be very important in ensuring the legislation's effectiveness in the future. When drafting our own Bill on the gender pay gap four or five years ago, the Bill introduced in this House in May 2017, we were very conscious that we wanted to build on existing statutory equality frameworks. That is why we drafted our Bill as amending legislation to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. I still believe that is an appropriate framework for introducing effective legislation to address this glaring inequity, the gender pay gap. I am glad to hear the Minister say that, even though he has not adopted the framework we suggested and even though we are somewhat unclear as to who exactly will collate the data and be responsible for maintaining the website and central repository of information, we can at least be assured that IHREC will retain the power to intervene of its own motion and, therefore, will retain that overarching function in monitoring how effective the legislation is in addressing the gender pay gap. That is very welcome.