Moore welcomes council’s pay gap report

The publication of the gender pay gap among employees of Meath County Council has been welcomed by Social Democrat Cllr Ronan Moore.

He said that when he put down a motion to analyse the gap in 2019 he was glad that it was already in the pipeline at that time. It was good to see the results in the chief executive’s annual report and that it would be published in the future. To give credit where it was due, he applauded the Government for bringing in the measure. It was a good idea to have gender pay scales because not only was it a good idea to attract inward investment but it made practical sense, he said. It was important that high grade graduates would know that going on maternity leave or career breaks to look after children would not impede their career progression.

He said that when he brought forward the motion in 2019 he noticed that the national average was 13.9%. In Meath County Council the mean percentage was 4.1%. The target was zero per cent. Four point one wasn’t perfect but it was a good start on the road.

Would it be possible to get a comparison with other councils of over 250 employees? He felt Meath would find it in a better place than most. Will there be a timeline for the Women Leadership Programme mentioned in the report? he asked.

Meanwhile, a call for better enforcement of planning regulations around the granting of planning permission for solar farms has been made by an independent councillor on Meath County Council after she raised residents’ complaints about roads being “cut up”.

Cllr Gillian Toole asked the council to monitor the situation. In one case residents using small local roads had “gone through hell”. The roads were in a dangerous condition. She claimed that conditions attached to planning permissions were not being adhered to, particularly with weekend work and the cleaning of the roads.