Charlie O'Connor
Ceist:158 Mr. O'Connor asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the proposals to continue to promote women's rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25205/02]
Written Answers. - Equality Issues.
Ireland's report to the United Nations on the national plan for women 2002 was submitted to the United Nations in October 2002 to fulfil a commitment to implement the UN Beijing platform for action on the advancement of women. The report, which was published in October 2002, describes in detail Ireland's existing commitments to advancing the status of women in Irish society.
My Department also published in October 2002 the report entitled Aspirations of Women collected in the course of the consultation process on the national plan for women 2002: Towards a National Women's Strategy. The Aspirations of Women report records the views of women articulated during the course of a wide ranging consultation process on the draft national plan for women. Both reports will be valuable in informing and influencing Government Departments and agencies into the future.
A key recommendation made by the consultation process steering committee set up to assist in the preparation of the national plan for women 2002 was the development of a national women's strategy building on the report to the United Nations on the national plan for women 2002 as the framework for Ireland's gender equality agenda from 2003 to 2010. The last such strategy, the Second Commission on the Status of Women, was published in 1993 and, while significant progress has been made since then, economic and social conditions have changed. The proposed strategy would encompass policies across many Government Departments and agencies and would be developed in consultation with the social partners. The Government has requested my Department to consider the recommendations of the steering committee in consultation with other relevant Departments and to bring further proposals, as appropriate, to Government and my Department is now considering how best to advance the development of a national women's strategy.
In relation to employment equality, my Department has drafted a number of proposals for legislative amendments to improve women's rights in the area of leave entitlements which are currently at various stages of development.
A review of the maternity protection legislation was carried out in 2000 by a working group, chaired by my Department, which comprised the social partners and relevant Government Departments and agencies. The group's recommendation to increase the periods of maternity and additional maternity leave was implemented very shortly after the publication of its report in February 2001. The increases were announced in budget 2001 and implemented with effect from March 2001. Identical increases were simultaneously applied to the adoptive leave entitlement.
In December 2000, the Government approved the implementation of the other recommendations of the working group by amendment of the existing legislation through statutory instrument or primary legislation, as appropriate. At that time, the Government also decided to amend the Adoptive Leave Act, 1995, to reflect the proposed changes to the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, where appropriate. On 17 July 2002, Government approval was obtained for the drafting of a Bill to give effect to the remaining recommendations of the working group. The Bill in relation to the amendment of the Maternity Leave Act, 1994, is currently with the parliamentary draftsman. It is expected that the Bill will be published early next year and enacted as soon as possible afterwards.
Legislative proposals to apply the recommendations of the working group on the review and improvement of the maternity protection legislation to the Adoptive Leave Act, 1995, where appropriate, are currently being formulated in the Department with a view to bringing them to Government in the coming weeks.
In accordance with a commitment made under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and section 28 of the Parental Leave Act itself, my Department conducted a review of the operation of the Act in consultation with the social partners in 2001. A working group, chaired by my Department, comprising the social partners, relevant Government Departments and the Equality Authority concluded a review of the Act on 29 November 2001 and the report of the working group on the review of the Parental Leave Act, 1998, was published on 29 April 2002.
The recommendations of the working group are being examined in detail by my Department at present with a view to bringing forward concrete proposals to Government.
My Department has introduced major pieces of rights-based legislation in the last five years. These include the Employment Equality Act, 1998, and the Equal Status Act, 2002.
The Employment Equality Act, 1998, which replaced the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1974, and the Employment Equality Act, 1977, prohibits discrimination in relation to employment on nine grounds – gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. The Act is comprehensive and deals with all areas relevant to employment including access to employment, conditions of employment, remuneration, promotion and vocational training. The Act is currently being examined in my Department to identify the amendments necessary to the Act in order to give effect to Directive 2002/73/EC (Gender Equal Treatment). The directive must be implemented by October 2005. It is proposed, however, to implement the directive during 2003 along with Directives 2000/43/EC (Race) and 2000/78/EC (Framework Employment).
The Equal Status Act, 2000, gives protection against discrimination in non-workplace areas and thus complements the Employment Equality Act, 1998. The Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on the same nine grounds as the Employment Equality Act, 1998. It deals with discrimination outside the employment context, including education, provision of goods, services and accommodation, disposal of property and private registered clubs. The Act covers all goods and services which are available to the public, whether on payment or not and irrespective of whether provided by the public sector or private sector.
My Department is responsible for an equality for women measure under the national development plan which is funding initiatives under the following strands: upskilling and retraining of women employees; encouraging entrepreneurship and career development among women; innovative projects for disadvantaged women and women over 50 years of age; support women in decision making; gender proofing of personnel practices; employer family friendly projects and sharing of family responsibilities; a research and information campaign for return to work women.
The total budget for the period 2000-2006 for the measure is €35 million, of which approximately €3 million is provided by the European social fund.
My Department chairs a consultative group on male-female wage differentials which was established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. The group is currently finalising a report to Government with proposals to address the issues raised on the gender pay gap in the ESRI report, How Unequal? Men and Women in the Irish Labour Market. That report estimated the pay gap in 1997 at 15.5% for the whole economy, based on average hourly earnings.
My Department is represented on the management committee of the EU gender equality programme 2001-5 and is involved in a number of projects under this programme on the issue of the gender pay gap and with one project on family friendly initiatives. The 2003 round of funding under this programme is for projects on the theme of decision making and my Department is considering leading a project on this theme.
The NDP gender equality unit in my Department has been set up to provide support and advice to policy makers and implementors on gender mainstreaming. The unit is funded under the employment and human resources development programme of the NDP, with a budget of €5.36 million over the period 2000-2006.
Since 2000, over 700 NDP policy makers have been trained on gender equality issues in general, and on gender equality issues in the following policy areas: training; enterprise development; urban development; agriculture and rural development; housing and transport; sports and leisure, tourism and auditors.
The NDP gender equality unit has funded a consortium of six county development boards to be trained in gender proofing, and a gender proofing handbook has been published. Fact sheets on gender equality in 19 policy areas have also been produced. The unit has also funded research reports on women in politics and decision making, individualisation of the social welfare system, women and homelessness and women in agriculture. The unit has compiled a database of gender disaggregated statistics relevant to NDP areas, and commissioned surveys on gender and transport and gender and housing.