The Department of Equality has said work is continuing on the legislation required to fully transpose the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive but acknowledged the required measures will not be completed by the June 7th deadline and so implementation will happen on “a phased basis”.
Responding to a query from The Irish Times, the department said “employers will not be penalised for not having all elements of the directive completed in June 2026 and the department will be working with stakeholders to communicate this message”.
Under the terms of the directive, employers will have to provide more information about salaries to job applicants and will not be allowed to ask candidates about their earnings history.
They will also, upon request from staff members, be obliged to provide gender-based information on pay for types of roles. In addition, where gender pay gaps of more than 5 per cent persist and can’t be legitimately explained, they will have to engage with staff representatives with a view to formulating an action plan.
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Employers group Ibec said uncertainty over the final wording of the legislation intended to complete the transposition of the directive has hindered preparation by employers and has sought a delay to implementation.
In a letter to the Minister for Equality Norma Foley, Ibec’s executive director of employee relations Maeve McElwee stated that while the organisation was aware the legislative process would not now be fully complete by the June 7th deadline, the process remained challenging and certainty regarding a timeline was needed as “employers cannot be pushed into noncompliance due to insufficient resources and/or insufficient time being afforded to them to comply”.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has said while it also accepts the legislative process will not now be complete by the June 7th deadline, the Government needs to complete the process as quickly as possible.
The organisation’s social policy officer Laura Bambrick said this week that even if the legislation has not taken effect, an Irish worker with a valid claim under the terms of the directive would ultimately be entitled to seek to have any payment of compensation backdated to the June 7th deadline.
In its statement, the department said Ireland’s Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 had transposed a large portion of the directive.
“The General Scheme of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill includes provisions to transpose Article 5 of the directive regarding the provision of information on salary to potential employees. The general scheme was referred to pre-legislative scrutiny in June 2025.
“Pre-legislative scrutiny was completed in October 2025, and department officials are considering the recommendations in the pre-legislative scrutiny report.”
The department said it was currently developing a general scheme to transpose the remaining elements of this directive into Irish law.
“The Department will work with employers, employees and their representatives in the implementation of the directive, which will be on a phased basis. Employers will not be penalised for not having all elements of the directive completed in June 2026 and the Department will be working with stakeholders to communicate this message.
“This directive is crucial to empower workers, and especially women, to enforce their right to equal pay through a set of binding measures on pay transparency, to strengthen the transparency of pay systems, to improve public understanding of the relevant legal concepts, and to enhance enforcement of the rights and obligations relating to equal pay, and the Government is fully committed to its full implementation.”
