Maternity Protection (Child Bereavement) (Amendment) Bill 2026: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-11 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister for coming along this evening. I commend my colleague, Senator Ryan and Sinn Féin on proposing this Bill. I am not going to go over the discussion that has just taken place, but will rather address the instrument by which the Government is using to delay or postpone the Bill. The Government has time amended the Bill for 18 months. To echo Senator Ryan's question, why is it 18 months? Why not six or 12 months? This is a Parliament parley. It is where we come together to talk and discuss. It is the Oireachtas - a gathering of people to discuss. All the issues were set out by Senator Murphy O'Mahoney very articulately and by the Minister about the concerns and clarifications. Can they not be addressed on Second, Committee or Report Stages? That is what they are for. When the Government time delays by 18 months, it closes down that discussion. I remind the House that this is not a polarised Parliament. Westminster is very polarised. It has led to very undesirable and antidemocratic outcomes. Washington has become polarised. We are not polarised; we are collegial. I have a question for Senator Byrne. How many Private Members' Bill slots will Senator Ryan get in the next 18 months or two years? It is probably one. The use of this guillotine and time delay is meaningless in the context of how we might improve, amend or ameliorate the Minister's concerns about the Bill. I just had to laugh. I have the Order Paper. On page 132 scheduled for Christmas Day 2026 is a Second Reading of the Disability (Personalised Budgets) Bill 2024. Welcome to the club. The Government time delayed my Bill for 18 months. This is the second time that I have seen it. Similar amendments have been applied in respect of other ideas coming forward. What is the purpose of the Seanad? It is to discuss and debate. It was originally designed in order that people could bring life experience to the Houses, advance the national discourse, try to do good and intervene positively. At a time when public trust in politics and politicians is being eroded, we are seeing these time delays being used. I know this is an instruction from Cabinet. From having dealt with the Minister, I know she is a person of absolute integrity. If I may be so bold as to say so, from her body language the last time this happened and even here today, I think she is probably uncomfortable with this deep down. It is a very paternalistic and cynical instrument to delay the passage of a Bill. To reference Quentin Tarantino, this is "Kill Bill". That is the design and intent of this. All of the issues the Minister has raised can be dealt with on Committee Stage. That is what this House is designed for. That is what we are all about. Then we see these time delays introduced. Everyone spoke very articulately and I know we are all on the same page here and want to do the right thing but there was nothing in what the Minister said that intellectually justifies this 18-month delay so I have to ask myself what is the purpose of it. I hope we can continue and progress in a collegial and constructive way. We see the division in other parliaments and the damage it does to polity and public trust in politics. When the Minister is talking to her colleagues in Cabinet, I ask her to say that this 18-month time delay is not useful, constructive or necessary and that it is creating stress and frustration in what is properly an already arduous process. There are five Stages to getting a Bill through this House. Without timed amendments, Senator Ryan's Bill might have got to Final Stage before the next general election. This time delay does not serve the purposes of these Houses. It does not just undermine us, but everyone in this House. We are all here on a mandate. In saying all of this, I do not mean anything personal. However, I suspect the Minister shares my unease about her being directed to come here and delay this by 18 months. To reiterate, all of the concerns the Minister has raised can be addressed at the various stages. I commend my colleagues in Sinn Féin and across the Civil Engagement Group and the Cross-Party Group. We are here to be constructive and to advance the public interest. We would like to work with the Minister on that but I ask for no more of these timed amendments. They are cynical and beneath the Government. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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