Ms Frances Fitzgerald:

There is much work being done on equality in the European Parliament. It has always been a leader on equality. I am on the women's rights committee and there is a very full agenda there at present. On the women on boards directive, the Germans did not do anything on it during their Presidency but it would make a difference in terms of business, women's voices, representation and so on. There is very good work being done on pay transparency, which I think Senator Sherlock raised. There is a new directive on pay transparency. That is very important and it will go through. That will make quite a difference, about which I have no doubt, because currently we have a variation of between 14% and 19% in the pay gap, with a 39% gender variation in pensions throughout Europe. It is incredible when you think about it and what it means for women, particularly for older women living in poverty. It is very serious. It is urgent that we deal with those issues nationally and throughout Europe.

Last week we had a very interesting week in the European Parliament. It was gender equality week. Every committee had to do some work on equality, which was the first time I had seen that. For example, the economic committee had a session on women and the economy, which I do not think it has had before. The development committee is doing a new EU-Africa strategy and we discussed the particular issues in regard to development. Europe can continue to lead on equality. There is much work still to be done.

We need to look at women's rights across the globe. FGM, for example, increased hugely during the pandemic. This is hard to believe but it was because of the lack of community leaders, education classes and with opportunities being reduced. Young, early marriages increased. We have to take a broad perspective around the world on gender equality.