If a response to the crisis of human tragedy is slower than humanity and passion demand, we should respond as quickly as possible to the emotions that are being displayed in this House.
To return to the motion, the law is also an instrument which serves to promote social objectives and to combat the forces of inertia embedded in traditional work culture and patterns of behaviour.
Section 14 of the Employment Equality Act recognises that certain requirements in four Acts administered by my Department may in effect be forcing employers, by law, to discriminate against women in employment. It accordingly empowers the Minister for Labour to repeal or amend any such requirement by Affirmative Order. In addition to my proposals for amending the original equal pay and employment equality statutes, I intend to make use of these powers to effect further changes by order wherever desirable. The additional measures will effect necessary changes in the provisions of the Conditions of Employment Act, 1936, and modify the blanket exclusion of certain significant occupations from the coverage of the equality legislation.
The purpose of this measure is to modify certain provisions in the Mines and Quarries Act, 1965. Subsection (1) of section 107 prohibits the employment of females below ground in a mine, and section 110 restricts the employment of women at night at a mine. These provisions have outlived their usefulness and, in the words of the 1977 Act, are nowadays "likely to affect or impede the elimination of discrimination in relation to employment or the promotion of equality of opportunity between men and women in relation to employment".
On the basis of a review of these provisions undertaken in my Department and the views of industrial, professional and other representative bodies which have been communicated to me, I propose with the approval of the House, to make an appropriate Order under section 14 of the Act.
The draft order before the House today, proposes to abolish the restriction on the employment of women at night in mines. The draft order also removes the prohibition on women working underground in a range of professional occupations which may require practical experience of underground work (for example some management or training posts), or involve spending an amount of time underground. This category includes specialists in fields such as radiology, geology and medical personnel. Female students in these disciplines who, as part of their courses may require `work experience' in underground work in mines and who, up to now, have been effectively barred from such experience, will also benefit from the change effected by this order.
As regards the total abolition of restrictions on the employment of women underground, we are constrained by ILO Convention No. 45 which Ireland ratified in 1936. The Convention forbids the employment of females on underground work in a mine; it does, however, provide that national laws or regulations, may exempt certain categories of females employed in non-manual work. In this instance, therefore, the proposed order would allow those categories of women to work below ground. To remove the ban completely on women working underground in mines would require Ireland to denounce ILO Convention No. 45, and the earliest this could be done would be in the year commencing 31 May 1987. In the meantime, I will be giving further consideration to the desirability of following this course of action.
As required by the Act, I have consulted the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Federated Union of Employers about this proposal and neither body has raised any objection. The modification has also been welcomed by the Employment Equality Agency and the Council for the Status of Women, whom I have also consulted, and by the Working Party on Women's Affairs and Family Law Reform in their recently published recommendations Agenda for Practical Action.
The draft order requires the prior approval of each House of the Oireachtas by way of Affirmative Resolution, and I request the Dáil to express such approval.