Maternity Protection (Child Bereavement) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-11
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

I thank all the Senators for the opportunity to speak today and respond to the legislation proposed by Senator Nicole Ryan to amend the Maternity Protection Act 1994. I acknowledge the work of the Senator, particularly over the past year, to bring greater focus to the issues women face in pregnancy and postnatal care, and I look forward to working with her to provide further supports to those most affected by such tragic circumstances. The Bill has been drafted with the very best intention: to give mothers, in an already fragile state following the birth of a child, the time they need to grieve when that child is lost. I fully agree that the sentiment here is valid. To lose a child is heartbreaking, but to lose a child while vulnerable on maternity leave – recovering from the trauma of birth and juggling multiple demands – is unimaginable.
I understand the Senator's disappointment over the Government decision to defer the Second Reading of the Bill for 18 months, but I want to set out the reasons on the record of the House today. As I have acknowledged, the intention of the legislation is in good faith; however, having read the Bill – I assure the Senator it has been read forensically – I believe there are issues with it, as currently drafted, that will need to be addressed. There are a number of actions that the Department and my Government colleagues are progressing that I want to inform the House about.
In the first instance, I want to note a number of unintended consequences that this Bill would have if enacted as it is. As the Senator has described, the Bill provides for an employee who is pregnant or on maternity leave to pause their maternity leave where they have lost a child. This is a worthy objective in any case. The Bill sets out that the postponement would be for a minimum of five weeks and that there is the possibility of a second postponement, with both postponement periods to be taken within a year of the start of the first pause. I understand the Senator has based this postponement on the amendments made by the Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024 to allow an employee to pause their maternity leave to undertake treatment for a serious illness. In this case, the employee would be transitioning to other statutory leave or benefits, but that is not the case with the legislation under discussion today. That is a key point of difference. Bereavement leave is not a statutory entitlement at present but can be included as part of an employee's contract of employment. This is the case for civil and public servants, including teachers, whereby a set number of days' bereavement leave is provided, depending on the relationship of the employee to the person who has died.
In the case of a child, an employee is entitled to 20 working days, or four weeks, to take time to grieve and come to terms with their loss. There is no time limit you can put on this, which I am sure and appreciate was the Senator's intention with the minimum period included in this Bill. However, providing for such a postponement where there is not another form of statutory leave available, or where entitlements included in employment contracts are less than the minimum postponement period, places those most affected in a very difficult situation. With other postponements included in the Maternity Protection Act 1994, the employee would return to work for the postponement period, such as that for the hospitalisation of the child the maternity leave relates to.
The Bill is also silent on the paid nature of the postponed period. As I have mentioned, with the amendments made in 2024 to the Maternity Protection Act, those postponing their maternity leave and benefit move to illness benefit for the period in which they are undergoing treatment. As there is no entitlement to bereavement leave, a person who postpones their maternity leave would not be entitled to the associated maternity benefit. Therefore, the expectation of this Bill is either for the postponed period to be unpaid or that an employer would cover the period of at least five weeks, up to 52 weeks, with a payment. There is no clarity to what is being proposed by the Senator in this regard.
As the Senator is aware, the Government is fully committed to supporting parents before, during and after pregnancy, and that is reflected in the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030, which I launched in November last year. The strategy has seven objectives, each of which will deal with the challenges and barriers faced by women across the life course, and how these challenges are magnified when there are other intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination. Two key objectives I want to highlight here are the "Being Well" objective and the "Being Supported" objective. "Being Well" considers not only the physical and mental health of women and girls across their lives but also their general well-being. The commitments under this objective include advancing the provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare and related leaves and benefits. This speaks to the work ongoing between my Department and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to develop policy and legislative proposals for those who experience early pregnancy loss. The second objective I want to highlight is "Being Supported". This objective is intrinsic to the discussion we are having today in that it entails supporting women where they are giving care, and where they are receiving care. With this objective, we will be diving into the issues faced by women and girls, including the fair share of caring responsibilities, and expanding family leave entitlements to further support working parents in the workplace and at home.
The Department is currently developing the first of two action plans to implement the strategy with the interdepartmental committee to put the strategy into action. I know that the Senator has very little faith in strategies, and I agree with her to a point. A strategy is nothing without action but we need the strategies to direct the action. The strategy pulls together all the different national and international policy frameworks, the programme for Government commitments, EU priorities and sets out clearly and accessibly what the issues are, where the gaps are and where we need to further focus our work.
There have been significant developments in the forms of leave available to working parents in recent years. This includes the introduction in 2019 of paid parents leave and the expansion of that so that it now provides nine weeks paid leave to each parent of a child under the age of two. In 2019, unpaid parental leave underwent a significant extension, with the entitlement now standing at 26 weeks for a child under 12-years-old. These developments have taken place alongside a broader expansion of entitlements for all workers, like statutory sick leave and the embrace of the more flexible working patterns which have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic. Further measures were included as part of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, which included the introduction of five days leave for medical care purposes, five days paid domestic, sexual and gender-based violence leave, the right to request flexible working hours for parents and carers, the right to request remote working for all employees and, of course, the extension of breastfeeding breaks. I recognise that none of these types of leave, none of these positive advancements, would address bereaved parents specifically but I highlight them as a context in which change in leave has taken place in recent years.
When consulting with employers and social partners on the development of new or expanded entitlements a number of issues often arise, such as the impact on employers and the ability of employees to make full use of their statutory rights. It is important that both employers and employees feel confident and assured that leave can be taken appropriately and in full. The Government recognises that these developments, which greatly benefit parents, must also be practical and genuinely meet the needs of both parents and carers. The Government fully understands that parents who experience a bereavement require support, compassion and the time and space necessary to process their grief. While providing such a postponement is one way of offering support, there are broader considerations around how the workplace and the Government can respond to the needs of a grieving parent. The postponement or leave alone, without additional supports, may not always meet the needs of an individual parent in such circumstances.
Again, my thoughts are with every person who has been affected by the death of a child and especially those who are on maternity leave. My officials and I are willing to work with the Senator on this issue, address the concerns that I have highlighted within the Bill and look at the policy behind it. However, there is work to be done to ensure that the intention of the Bill, which is a good intention, and I respect that, is executed to provide the fullest support to those who need it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11