asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if, on behalf of the Government, he has submitted any proposals to the Council of Ministers of the European Community which would entitle Ireland to derogate from any or all of the provisions of the Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women, dated 10th February, 1975.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Equal Pay Directive.
24.
The answer to the Deputy's question is in the negative. However, an application to the Commission under Article 135 of the Act of Accession of Ireland to the European Communities seeking authorisation for derogation by Ireland from the full implementation in the private sector of the Council Directive on equal pay has been lodged with the Commission today.
The Parliamentary Secretary will be aware that the Minister for whom he is replying was the person who signed that directive amid some public pomp.
I am aware of that.
I should like to know if the Minister at that time, in the knowledge of what this Government were about to do, informed his colleagues that our Government would be seeking to derogate from that directive in any way?
That directive, as the Deputy is aware, was signed some time last spring or early summer, and the domestic situation we are talking about developed only in the last few weeks.
I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary is aware of the fact that he and many of his colleagues talked about a tempest of raging international inflation over the last few years and that this contradicts what he has said. Is he aware that the directive signed by the Minister, amidst great pomp, obliges member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that provisions appearing in collective agreements, wage claims, wage agreements or individual contracts of employment which are contrary to the principle of equal pay shall be or may be declared null and void or may be amended? When our Minister signed that document he was President of the Council of Ministers.
The Deputy is making a meal out of this. The Minister signed this directive not qua the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland but qua the President of the Council of Ministers.
It was open to the Minister to at least communicate to his colleagues over whom he was presiding the likelihood that our Government would seek to derogate from the directive.
The Deputy knows well that domestic matters, when one is exercising a different function like the Minister was, would not be appropriate to be brought to one's colleagues attention even if they were present to his mind which I do not believe they were.
The Minister wants to have his cake and eat it. He gets all the pomp but——
That is not a question. Next question.
25.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs when the EEC Council Directive on equal pay dated 10th February, 1975, was communicated to the Government; and if the Government have since notified the Council at any time of its approval or rejection of the principles of this directive.
The Council Directive on the application of equal pay (75/117/EEC) was communicated to the Government by the President of the Council on 12th February, 1975. Directives of the Council are binding, as to the result to be achieved, on each member State and the question of subsequently notifying the Council of approval or rejection of the principles of the directive does not, therefore arise.
If they are binding, how can the Government reconcile that with the provisions of Article 4 of the directive?
The Government are not in a position, and the time has long passed for them, to indicate either approval or rejection of the principle of the directive. They are bound by the principles of the directive but there is machinery for having themselves exempted from its application and that was the subject of the previous question.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary accept that there is a much higher percentage of single women in receipt of public service pay here than in any other country in the Community? In view of that will the Parliamentary Secretary accept that the recent turnabout by the Government was completely contrary to the Directive signed by our Minister on behalf of the Council of Ministers?
I have nothing to add to what I said in reply to the previous question, that we had today lodged an application to derogate from this obligation.
The Parliamentary Secretary is at least being honest.
Is it still intended to publish the Unilateral Derogation (Equal Pay) Bill today?
I will inquire about that in a moment.