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

There are other policy implications here that are wider than this. For instance, parental leave can be shared or not shared as the case may be. We have to be careful the mother does not end up taking the bulk of parental leave, jeopardising chances of promotion later. There are many other issues such as this. The debate is useful and important, but I want to draw the attention of committee members to the European Union draft directive on work-life balance, which is very important.

There is a proposal to introduce paid parental leave rather than unpaid parental leave. I said earlier that we have an interdepartmental working group that is due to report. I am concerned that we did not have any formal consultation on this Bill with stakeholders. In all fairness, if someone is impacted in any way, as Deputy Brophy said, particularly small businesses, they should have an opportunity to have their say. Usually, if it is a Government Bill, we would have a public symposium where people would come along, have their say and have an impact. That was not possible here and did not happen. I was hoping it would happen in the committee but it did not. I am bit concerned about that. I wish to raise another issue at the end when we discuss the summing up.