I want to thank the Deputy for his follow up question and reiterate that the Government is fully committed to the complete and meaningful implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive. The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 transposed a large portion of the Directive, particularly in relation to Article 9 on Gender Pay Gap Reporting. Partial Transposition of the Directive has been notified to the EU Commission.
As noted in my previous response, work is ongoing to develop the necessary legislation to transpose the remaining provisions of the Directive. This will be done by primary legislation, and due to the legislative process it is not possible to give a definite timeline for the transposition.
The Department will work with employers, employees and their representatives to support and enable implementation of the Directive, which will be on a phased basis once the passage of the legislation is complete. Employers will not be penalised for not having all elements of Directive in place in advance of this, and the Department has been working with stakeholders to communicate this message. At present, employers will remain obligated to calculate and publish information on their gender pay gap by the end of November and, following a small amendment to the gender pay gap legislation, employers will be obligated to report that information to the Minister via the dedicated Gender Pay Gap Portal for the 2026 Reporting Cycle.