I welcome that we are marking International Women’s Day, albeit belatedly. I pay tribute to the women who work in our communities, workplaces, trade unions and right across this country to try to make it a better place. It is almost 120 years since the strike by textile workers in New York that lit the fuse, effectively, to start marking International Women’s Day. I also extend my condolences to Deputy O’Reilly and her family on the loss of her mother last September. The Labour Party marked International Women’s Day this year by standing with the staff and families of the Rotunda Hospital at the Garden of Remembrance, looking on at where work on the critical care wing should be progressing. However, that planning application, in part due to the ineptitude of the Government and the Department of Health, failed to be approved by An Coimisiún Pleanála. The Government and the Department failed to listen to the hospital about the decade-old co-location policy. I am relieved that the Government has abandoned its plans to move the Rotunda Hospital out to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. We need to ensure that the critical care wing is built as soon as possible. It is 20 years - two decades - since there has been any serious investment in maternity facilities in this country. There are massive delays with regard to the National Maternity Hospital in Elm Park, but we cannot forget the Coombe Hospital and the Rotunda in particular when it comes to that vital investment. I will raise two issues, the first of which relates to pay. As the Minister of State knows, the pay transparency directive is supposed to be transposed into domestic law by June. What is the Government so afraid of in this regard? We are hearing that the Government is not going to transpose the directive by the deadline but, rather, it will bring forward its own stand-alone legislation. However, we have not seen the heads of Bill yet. We must ask why that is the case. Why is the Government capitulating to employers’ demands to put off transposing this important legislation that will pull back the veil on pay arrangements within workplaces and ensure that workers can apply for jobs with some idea as to what the pay range will be, as opposed to turning it into a bald negotiating exercise where workers must go in and suggest what they are worth? Critically, it will mean that pay, as opposed to an individual’s work history, will be attached to a role . That is particularly vital for women who are returning to the labour force or coming from part-time roles. It is a bit rich to talk about gender equality in this Chamber while the Government appears to be willing to incur fines because it does not want to transpose this key legislation. We want to hear from the Minister of State as to where the legislation is at. Women on average pay earn 24% less than men. There is a lot of talk about hourly pay, but no one looks at their hourly wages. Rather, they look at their weekly earnings and their ability to deal with the cost of living from those earnings. Not only are women earning less per hour, but far too many of them are forced to work fewer hours because of a lack of childcare or the burden of having to care for older people. This is an issue we talk far too little about. We talk a great deal about childcare - my colleague Deputy Wall will talk about that in a moment - but many women holding down jobs are also caring for older relatives. Almost 30% of women in this country work part-time hours, some by choice but many out of necessity. That has a real impact in the context of less than average pay within a company and accessing promotions. Far too many women are condemned to the low pay, part-time employment trap. We must change that. I appeal to the Minister of State to crack on with the gender pay transparency legislation. I am going to read from a letter that reflects just how far we have still to travel, despite our talking of all the progress we have made in this country. It relates to the health sector. In the letter, a woman explains how, over the past two years, she has ended up staying in a number of Irish hospitals, both as a patient and as the parent of her teenage daughter. She spent a week in a major hospital in 2025, while her daughter spent a week in another major hospital in 2024, five days in a paediatric hospital in 2024, along with an additional five days in 2025. While the care in these hospitals was exemplary, she highlighted one issue. Her daughter was most unfortunate that she got her period at some stage during each of her long hospital stays, as did the mother. Between them, they have had five hospital stays over a two-year period. Sanitary towels were not provided for inpatients in hospital wards. They were not available or part of the hospital supplies. While the nurses and care staff were most apologetic, the supplies were not available. Across these hospitals, nappies are freely available to both adults and girls without question, and rightly so, but when it came to sanitary towels or products, they could not be made available. We all have to reflect on the indignity of the situation those young girls and women are being left in, particularly if they are immobile, non-ambulatory or do not have visitors for a number of days. That is absolutely unacceptable in 2026. We submitted a question to the HSE in respect of this matter. It responded by talking about sanitary products in the public toilets. We are talking about patients in wards, however. This must change. I hope the Minister of State will relay that to the relevant people.

Sentiment score: 0.07