David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I was saying before the division in the House, this is important legislation which impacts on significant policy areas, including childcare and gender. I am surprised and a bit disappointed, therefore, that we have had no opportunity to consult with the stakeholders who will be impacted in both positive and negative ways. It is one of the issues with Private Members' Bills which I have raised time and time again in the House and elsewhere. They would be greatly enriched if we had proper pre-legislative scrutiny even before Second Stage such as all Government Bills go through along with other checks and balances. We are where we are, however.

There is no doubt that many households may be unable to avail of unpaid leave. As such, it is important that our policies in this area are coherent in both domestic and EU contexts and move forward in a progressive manner and in sync with each other. We are all in agreement that we must do our utmost to help and support parents. I remind the committee that over the last three budgets, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has secured an unprecedented 80% increase in the budget for childcare, which reflects the Government's commitment to parents and children. In 2018 alone, investment in childcare will be €487 million. This investment is being used to improve access to high-quality affordable childcare for approximately 170,000 children and their families. As the committee will be aware, free preschool services provided under the early childhood care and education programme have been extended and improved and measures have been put in place to reduce the cost of childcare.

The Government believes the focus should now be on introducing parental leave on a paid basis. A Programme for a Partnership Government includes a commitment to increase paid parental leave during the first year of a child's life as research shows that children benefit most from parental care in that first year. An interdepartmental working group has been examining proposals to give effect to this programme commitment and is in the process of putting the final touches to its report. We hope to have that shortly.

At EU level, a new work-life balance directive is under discussion at working group level under the Bulgarian Presidency. The proposed directive recognises that the provision of paid parental leave will be more effective and appropriate in encouraging fathers to be more involved in the caring role for their children, thus contributing to the promotion of gender equality. The directive is part of a package of EU measures aimed at addressing the under-representation of women in employment and supporting women's career progression by creating improved conditions whereby they can reconcile their work responsibilities and family commitments.

We must support families and promote gender equality at the same time by bringing about a degree of cultural change in considered steps. Women's empowerment is a key theme running through our programme for partnership Government. As such, there are multiple policy objectives in this case which means a nuanced and sophisticated approach is required. When it comes to improving and expanding our current family leave system, there are wider and more complex factors which I have set out above which this Bill does not consider. As such, I may bring forward amendments to a number of sections on Report Stage. I will outline those as we move through the Bill. We also have a national strategy on women and girls towards which we are working to improve equality. Just this morning and yesterday, I attended an international conference on equal opportunities for men and boys.

A great deal is happening at Council of Europe, EU and Government level in this area. As such, the Deputy is right to bring this forward. However, there are issues. We must bear in mind the impact any change in legislation has on stakeholders and the need to involve them in the process. If the Government brought forward legislation like this without involving stakeholders in some kind of discussion, there would be ruaile buaile. We are where we are.