Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
1302. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the measures, outside of constitutional amendments, his Government is taking to implement the Report of the Citizen’s Assembly on Gender Equality and the recommendations and action plan produced by the Joint Committee on Gender Equality. [55935/23]
View answerIn its final report, the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality made 45 recommendations. Subsequently, the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality recommended an expanded list of 205 actions to give them effect. 161 are either completed or in progress (147 of those actions are currently in progress and 14 completed). Those completed include:
- the introduction of gender pay gap reporting in 2022 under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021.
- the creation of Cuan, the new statutory agency dedicated to tackling and reducing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
- the commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
- the introduction of paid Parent's Leave which will increase to nine weeks per child by August 2024.
- a new bursary for apprenticeships to encourage more women to take on trades and crafts.
A range of measures have been introduced or are in progress to promote equality for women in the workplace, including in terms of pension rights. Supports for those with caring responsibilities, particularly for children, have also been enhanced significantly, with substantial investment in childcare in Budgets 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Care
- Better pay deals for early years’ educators. The newly created Joint Labour Committee successfully delivered two Employment Regulation Orders (EROs), which came into force in September 2022, which improved pay for an estimated 70% of workers in the ELC and SAC sector. Early Years educators now earn €13 an hour, while graduate lead educators and schools age childcare coordinators earn €15.50 an hour.
- Budget 2023 introduced major reforms to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) which have substantially improved the affordability of early learning and care and school aged childcare for families. Within the first half of 2023, a total of 134,580 children availed of supports under the Scheme – compared to 70,786 for the same period in 2022. The NCS is the first statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare. The minimum subsidy under the Scheme is now worth up to €3,276 per annum for families availing of a full-time place in a Tusla-registered early learning and childcare service.
- Allowances for carers continue to increase. From January 2024, there will be a €12 increase in weekly social welfare payments, with the maximum rate of the Carer's Allowance increasing from €236 to €248 and Carer's Benefit increasing from €237 to €249. Meanwhile, the income disregard for Carer’s Allowance will increase from €750 to €900 for couples and from €350 to €450 for single carers under the most recent budget.
- Expansion of leaves for working families - parents of children under 2 will, from August 2024, have an individual entitlement to 9 weeks paid Parent's Leave to care for their child.
Social Protection
- The pension auto-enrolment system will be introduced in the second half of 2024. People who do not have a pension scheme, earning more than €20,000 per year and aged between 23 and 60 will be automatically enrolled into the new system. For every €3 that an employee puts in, the employer will also put in €3 and the State will top up by €1.
- The state pension system gives significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace through the award of PRSI credits, the application of the homemaker’s scheme and the application of home care periods.
Leadership in Politics, Public Life & the Workplace
- The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act introduced quotas for political parties. The quotas are linked to State funding and if they are not met, the parties stand to lose half of the annual funding received from the State. The quota has now increased from 30% to 40% for future general elections.
-The Local Government (Maternity Protection and Other Measures for Members of Local Authorities) Act 2022, enacted in December 2022, introduced statutory maternity leave for councillors for the first time. Legislative proposals to provide for maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas are currently being developed.
Norms & Stereotypes and Education
- In April 2022, Minister Harris announced a new gender-based bursary for apprenticeships as part of the Action Plan for Apprenticeships. The bursary, worth €2,666, is available to employers who employ apprentices in the minority gender on any national apprenticeship programme with greater than 80% representation of a single gender.
- In December 2022, the Department of Education published Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying following an extensive consultation with all members of the school community. The Action Plan specifically acknowledges how a person’s likelihood to experience bullying can be linked to their race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, additional educational need, or other characteristic and contains a broad range of actions to prevent and address bullying.
-Additional funding has been provided to support postdoctoral researchers and principal investigators on maternity and paternity leave in third level institutions who are on Irish Research Council-funded contracts.
- The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) Guidance Team are increasing awareness of career paths as being gender neutral in its supports, for example through putting a spotlight on women in apprenticeships and STEM careers, and challenging unconscious bias in a range of workshops, webinars and newsletters in 2023.
Pay and Workplace Conditions
- Reporting under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 began in 2022 for employers with over 250 employees and will extend in 2024 those with over 150 employees and, in 2025, to those with over 50 employees.
Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
- A new statutory agency called Cuan dedicated to tackling and reducing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) was created in January 2024, with the commencement of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Agency Act.
-Actions under the Third National Strategy on DSGBV are already in progress. 12 actions are completed to date, with 36 separate implementation plans within them. They include:
a. The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act was enacted on 10 December 2022.
b. The General Scheme of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill was published in Q3 2022.
Gender Equality Principle in Law and Policy
- DCEDIY is working with the CSO to develop a national Equality Data Strategy. Work is well advanced and the Strategy will be published soon.
- Work is advancing on legislative proposals to strengthen the equality legislation, including in terms of enabling redress mechanisms to function more effectively.
- Equality Budgeting, introduced in 2018, brings an additional lens to performance budgeting, by assessing the likely impact of budgetary measures across a range of areas such as income, health and education, and how outcomes differ across gender, age, ethnicity and other equality grounds.
