Those amendments will be made in the Seanad today.

I thank Senators for their contributions. We had significant discussions about this issue on Committee Stage, which was very useful. A number of amendments were put forward by the Opposition and there were a number of contributions from Government colleagues. I reflected on that and, as such, have brought forward two amendments today. It is important to say what is not in the Bill. A figure of 70% has been set out as if that rate of pay has been written into the Bill. That is not written anywhere in the Bill and it…

I thank the Senator. I can assure him there is no less passion on this side of the House in terms of the delivery of this Bill. I want to make it very clear on my behalf that in the programme for Government there was a commitment to look at the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence leave. We have taken that commitment and advanced it to a stage whereby we are going to implement this paid leave, recognising the risk of poverty those fleeing situations of domestic violence face. The Senator has put out …

It does fix the Bill.

It ensures those who have the most understanding about this issue are able to feed directly to the Minister in terms of a decision the Minister makes. I believe that will allow us to ensure that, when this rate is set, it does deliver. The rate that is set will in no way undermine the overall goal of this legislation, which is to deliver for victims of domestic violence. I believe this is the right approach to take. We are listening to groups. We have listened to groups throughout this entire process. We will conti…

As I said in the context of the last debate, during Committee Stage we had a very extensive debate about the rate of pay issue and a number of Senators raised issues and expressed concerns about rates being set at a rate lower than 100%, the potential impact that could have on uptake and, most importantly, recognising, as we do now, the specific nature of coercive control and the degree of examination a victim of coercive control can be under, particularly in terms of their bank account and the control that is exer…

I thank the Senators for their contributions. What the amendments the Government brings forward today do is ensure that the knowledge and information about the specific impact, in particular in the case of coercive control in terms of control over bank accounts and knowledge of income a victim of DSGBV is receiving, are used to make sure they can be central to a decision taken on the rate. I will repeat what I have said to Senators, I am very clear what I am seeking to achieve by means of the introduction of this l…

This amendment seeks to substitute the term " in loco parentis " with the phrase "providing parental care" and support. The term " in loco parentis " is used elsewhere in this legislation. Having taken advice on this, we are satisfied that the current wording will cover foster care arrangements. The current wording is sufficient regarding foster care which was raised on Committee Stage. More broadly, this term is used throughout the legislation. To remove it in this instance would create an inconsistency so we are …

Section 8 inserts a new Part IIA into the Parental Leave Act 1998 to provide a right to request flexible working for parents and carers. The proposed amendments would amend the new section 13B which provides for the range of persons for whom the leave can be taken. Part IIA has been carefully drafted to ensure that the directive is correctly transposed and provides the right to parents and those providing personal care or support for serious medical reasons to persons who fall within a range of family or personal r…

I understand what the Senators are trying to do here but I genuinely do not believe it is needed because of the other provisions of the Bill. The Senators are trying to amend the age limits for a child with a disability or long-term illness for which a request for a flexible working arrangement can be made. The age limits for relevant parents to request flexible working arrangements for care purposes are aligned with the age limits for parental leave so the leave can be taken before the child's 12th birthday or 16t…

The entitlement to many forms of family leave requires a minimum period of employment. For parental leave and carers' leave, for example, there is a minimum period of one year, while for statutory sick leave a period of 13 weeks of continuous service is required. Indeed, the work-life balance directive does envisage a notice period for flexible working arrangements. I understand what the Senator is trying to do with this amendment, which is to introduce greater flexibility into the six-month minimum period of servi…

The new section 13C to be inserted into the Parental Leave Act sets out the obligations on an employer to consider a request for flexible working and the process and time limits to be followed. The provision sets out that an employer must consider his or her own needs and the employee's needs. I appreciate that the amendment is seeking to add more detail to this point but there is a risk that we might inadvertently limit the consideration to an excessively narrow frame and that could actually end up disadvantaging …

These amendments seek to amend the process around termination due to seasonal variations in the volume of work. We had a good discussion about this with Senator Higgins on Committee Stage. I set out my view as to why these amendments are unnecessary at that point. The provisions of the Bill do not preclude employees from making a request for a follow-on flexible or remote working arrangement to commence once the period of seasonal variation concludes. I would make two further points about these amendments which ref…

As previously discussed the new subsection (13)(h) inserts a review clause for provisions under the new Part 2A of the Parental Leave Act 1998. We discussed this on Committee Stage. I know Senator Black was not here, but she was ably represented by her colleague on this issue. I have brought amendments which make explicit in the legislation that the review will include a consideration of whether the right to request flexible working should be extended to all employees. When we brought in this legislation we wrote t…

I hope the Senator is here too, and not in the other House. I wish her the best on retaining her seat in the Seanad for as long as she would like. That would make me very happy indeed, as she is my beloved constituency colleague. It is important that we mark where we want to go, and that is where I want to go too. The point at which flexible and remote working interlock was agreed between the two Departments. I wanted to make sure we included this provision so we can flag where we would like to see the direction of…

There was a significant discussion on Committee Stage about some of the GDPR provisions. I reflected on the points made by Senator Higgins. I was unable to accept her amendments then and I am not in a position to accept the amendments she will be putting forward today. However, I have tried to go some way in addressing some of the GDPR issues she raised, particularly issues pertaining to the retention of information. Section 15 of the Bill amends section 27 of the Parental Leave Act 1998, which provides for the ret…

We believe that eight years is a correct assumption. We looked at the situation and had a previous discussion with Senator Higgins regarding it. We believe the figure we arrived at for the number of years is a fair balance.

We reflected on this and sought legal advice on it. I asked my team to consider whether we would table an amendment to take account of the position outlined by Senator Higgins. It was very much the view that the requirements of the general data protection regulation, GDPR, mean an employer must destroy records when it no longer has a legal basis for holding them. That is now the position under EU and domestic law. We believe that is the position that will apply under this legislation. It is also worth saying there …

This is a very technical amendment to reflect the title of the relevant Minister, namely, the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

The proposed amendments are quite similar to those we discussed. I will make similar points regarding them. Seasonal variation can be built into a flexible working arrangement and very much form part of that. There may be situations where it disadvantages an employee to immediately revert to the original arrangement. I do not share the Senator's concern that seasonal variations will be used as an excuse to terminate a flexible working agreement. The criteria clearly set out the circumstances in which a termination …