As the leave is currently designed, it has to be taken within the first year of the child's birth. My proposal is that this can be taken in the first two years. Deputy Whitmore's alternative is the first three years. I suppose we are trying to achieve a balance. The core reason we are bringing it out to two years is that acknowledgement of the difficulties faced by families and by new parents during the Covid crisis. It is an acknowledgement of the inability to access those familial, as well as wider societal, supp…

I understand where the Deputy is coming from but this is not something that can be done on a temporary basis. We are dealing with primary legislation here and if we put in three years we would have to bring in primary legislation to take that out if we decided to shorten the period. It is different from dealing with it through a statutory instrument. We are making a significant change to the time period within which parental leave can be taken. We are doubling the period. Doing so does deviate us slightly from the …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to be in a position to bring forward the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2021. As Deputies know, the Bill passed all Stages in the Seanad and has been renamed the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2021. The Short Title has been changed to accommodate the Government amendments to the Bill that are for the purpose of amending the Judicial Council Act 2019 and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 in respect of person…

I thank Deputies across the House for their support for this legislation. It was noticeable from the contributions that we all recognise the challenges families have faced and face, particularly the challenges new families face. Those first months after the birth of a child are always a challenging time but Covid has magnified every single challenge in society. The measure we are taking today is a small recognition on behalf of the Government to all parents of children born from 1 November 2019. A number of Deputie…

I thank Senator Ruane for her amendment and all the Senators for speaking on it. I understand the spirit in which this amendment is put forward and I am committed to working with Senators, and indeed Deputies, on the issues that are raised here. A legislative requirement to bring forward a review of the nature described by Senator Ruane's amendment is not necessary at this time because the work that the Senator describes is work that is being carried out on an ongoing basis. We are reviewing the provisions we make …

I am pleased to address the Seanad on Second Stage of the Family Leave Bill 2021. This Bill will help fulfil a number of commitments in the programme for Government, including extending paid parental leave and providing adoptive leave for male same-sex adoptive couples. The Family Leave Bill 2021 has three elements. The first is to amend the Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019 to extend the entitlements to parent's leave for each parent of a qualifying child from two to five weeks and to provide for this leave to b…

I thank the Senators for their contributions and for the positive way in which they have responded to this legislation. I agree that it is very positive. It is a clear step forward in a direction towards supporting all families, recognising our understanding of the role, and that the joy rather than the burden of caring for children should be shared between parents where there are parents, and that parents should be facilitated in as much as possible in doing this. It is something we should seek to achieve. I want …

I thank Deputy Paul Donnelly for giving his wife's words and reminding us of the stakes at play in respect of this issue. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the extremely important matters involved here and I acknowledge Deputy Funchion for bringing forward the Bill. Access to birth information has been to the forefront of my agenda since I became a Minister and is a priority for me and for the Government. We have been fully aware of the significance and urgency of the issue of birth and identity information sin…

I thank Senators Bacik and Sherlock for raising this important issue today. I wish them and the House a happy International Women's Day. I share the Senators’ concerns regarding measures to increase pay transparency as a means to tackle the gender pay gap, although Senator Sherlock is right that it is just one of the means. As the Minister with responsibility for gender equality, I am very conscious of the importance of the gender pay gap as a metric of women’s economic empowerment relative to men’s. It illustrates…

I will consider all amendments proposed in the legislative process, as I always try to do. We are bringing a number of changes to the Bill and having examined the original draft, I believe, they will strengthen it. In particular, we intend to introduce a mechanism for an earlier review. I understand the review period in the current draft is after five years and I intend to shorten that. There is always a balance to be struck between giving legislation some time to demonstrate its strengths and potential weaknesses …

As we called it out in the programme for Government, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is an epidemic in our country. We are ever more conscious of this during Covid-19. The high reporting figures are good because they represent a sign that primarily women are coming forward to say what is happening. The Government has identified this epidemic and is going to address it. There are four major areas besides all the other items that Senator O'Reilly mentioned, including the additional funding - we are going t…

I thank Members for the opportunity to speak today about equal opportunities and access for women in all spheres of life, whether it be economic, social, cultural or political. It is important that we have these debates to keep the issue of gender equality live in mainstream politics. I welcome the initiative of the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus to raise the matter. I note the appropriateness of Senator O'Loughlin chairing this session given her role as chairperson of the women’s caucus. I believe the caucus h…

I thank the Deputy for speaking with such passion on this issue. The stark figure he raised of more than 800 active missing persons cases in the country reminds us why this issue is so critical. I spoke to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, about this earlier this afternoon. She said she would like to be here but cannot because of the Brexit meeting. I will, however, engage with her further and I know she is giving this issue her attention. As the Deputy will appreciate, the investigation and prevention of crimes are op…

I will bring that request to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. While I do not want to speak for her by any means, I am sure the Government will look at examining recommendations. As I acknowledged in my own statement, the loss of a loved one in unknown circumstances is tragedy. The pain associated with such loss is carried and felt by families and subsequent generations. When we hear of a body being identified, there is the mixed emotion of the absolute tragedy for the family. There is also, I suppose, a sl…

I thank Members for the opportunity to speak today about the impact of Covid-19 on women. It is important that we have these debates to keep the issue of gender equality live but also to better understand the experiences of women in order that we as legislators can continue to make great strides towards achieving gender equality. I am particularly pleased to have this opportunity in the context of International Women's Day. The theme chosen this year for International Women's Day by UN Women is Women in Leadership:…

Do I have-----

Okay. I was misinformed. I had a speech and everything. Apologies.

I welcome the opportunity to deal with the important issues raised by this motion. It is an opportunity for me to update the House on the issue of the deletion of audio files, which is central to the motion before us. Colleagues across the House are united in wanting to do what is right by survivors. I strongly believe we must focus on real solutions and move quickly to resolve the difficulties in a way that best serves survivors. For this reason, the Government has not tabled a counter-motion today. Instead, my De…

I thank the Acting Chairperson for his kind words. I have appreciated the opportunity to come into this House on three occasions to hear at length and in depth from Senators from around the country. They have had engagements, experiences and conversations with people in their own areas who have been impacted by this situation and-or seen the impact of local mother and baby home institutions in those areas. It has been a valuable experience for me as I work on the Government's response. A number of Senators raised t…

I will speak to the Senator afterward.