Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of my colleagues back to the House and also welcome the beginning of a session during which we can make a major difference to many people's lives in this country. I am referring to the forthcoming referendum on children's rights. Right now there are 1,500 children who have been in care for more than five years. Children of married parents who are in care for various reasons, including neglect or abuse, cannot be adopted in this country. This referendum, if passed, will give such children, for the first time, access to a family to which they can belong. Approximately 95% of children in care are in foster care but as the law currently stands, they must be approximately 17 years old before they can prove abandonment by their birth family in order to be able to be adopted. I welcome the publication by the Leader of the dates for the debates in this House on the referendum and the proposed adoption legislation. I call for a sensitive and caring debate on these matters in order that all our children can be treated equally as they try to have a happy childhood. They have a right to a happy childhood and a right to feel protected and safe. I compliment the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, on publishing a wording which shows that the rights of the family and the rights of the child can coexist. That is highly commendable.

I ask the Leader for an urgent debate on sick pay. We have just had a very useful briefing by small and medium sized businesses which showed that if the proposals from the Minister for Social Protection on sick pay go through, with the payment of sick pay for 28 days becoming the responsibility of the employer, it could cost 20,000 jobs.

We cannot stand by and let that happen. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister into the House as soon as possible.