Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the Order of Business. Yesterday, 8 November, was Equal Pay Day. Women in Ireland are effectively working for free for the final 14.4% of the year, according to research published today by WorkEqual. It is always important that we note Equal Pay Day because closing the gender pay gap is extremely important. Although legislation has been introduced in the form of the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021, it only goes so far. We have made progress but there is much more that we need to do.

I wish to raise an unusual situation. The football match between Portugal and Ireland is on 11 November and all present hope Ireland will do well in it. A person who wanted to buy two tickets for her partner and her son contacted me. She was seeking to buy the tickets on the website of a very well known organisation that sells these tickets. The prices were €120 for the adult ticket and €25 for the child ticket. That was all well and good and the woman was willing to purchase them but she was not able to buy the child ticket and ended up paying €240 for two tickets. That is bad enough in itself. She contacted me approximately three weeks ago and I suggested that she go back to the organisation from which she purchased the tickets. To date, she has had no reply whatsoever from the organisation and neither have I, having taken the matter up on her behalf. She has gone to the FAI. I hope it will do something. This is completely wrong. We want to encourage young people to play sport. The excitement of going to an international match is important in people's lives. This is an issue we need to keep an eye on. We need to send a message that it is not good enough and that we will be watching and raising it.

I wish to raise the issue of work permits, as I have previously, in the context of certain industries. The Minister said another quota would be fixed in respect of work permits. That was all well and good but I am aware of a company that sent in all the relevant information at midnight on the night of the announcement. Its application was returned and the company was told that applications will only be sought and received 28 days after the Minister made the announcement. That is not good enough. I have been told that the working group that examines these particular areas only meets twice a year and there is only one person from industry on it. Again, that is not good enough.

The final issue I wish to raise relates to Monasterevin day care centre, which was started in 1996 by a group of volunteers doing incredible work. In 2014, it was ordered to close by the HSE to facilitate essential work that was needed. The centre relocated to a local football club. which has been wonderful in sharing its time and space. This saga has gone on and on. Planning permission was granted again on 27 May 2020 but nothing has happened. There is a cohort of people involved and a very central and decent location that they could be in. We need to call this out. I ask that the Leader to contact the Minister on the issue.