Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. On the question about flexibility, I will say that the ten days can be broken up. If a woman's refuge is far away from her workplace, she would have the opportunity to take that leave parcelled up. I would be open to having a discussion at the next stage about how we could extend it in certain specific circumstances. That is a worthwhile conversation.

The Senator asked what is to be done around an information campaign. Part of ILO Convention No. 190, which I referred to earlier, is on tackling domestic abuse in the workplace. Part of it states there must be an information campaign. The Minister of State, Deputy English, has said it is his intention to ratify that convention. I assume and understand that work is ongoing. If that is ratified, the information campaign comes with it. However, when there is any form of new leave introduced, the people in human resources departments must get training on how it works. No matter what kind of leave it is, once new leave is introduced, human resources must get trained on it. That would be a good time to bring in the information campaign. We could do simple things such as posters in the workplace and information leaflets in the canteen. All of that is extremely important.

Having the leave in place means that an employee is not asking for a grace and favour arrangement. The employee is entitled to the leave and the only question is when he or she takes it. That must be key because it is scary. It is also scary for people who are in work and see someone in this situation, desperately want to help but cannot think what practical things can be done. The practical thing that can be done is to show the people concerned the posters in the break rooms and tell them what they are entitled to. Thereafter an affected person can go to the human resources department and the discretion is there. As happens with any new form of leave, there must be training for how the leave is applied for and how the applications are handled. Training in how the confidentiality aspect is handled must be key.

The Senator is right that people might make a situation worse while trying to make it better. I see some Deputies nodding because we have all been in situations where we wanted to help but did not know what we could practically do. This is not the beginning, middle and end of the solution but it is an important piece of the jigsaw to ensure people have a practical means to help anyone affected by domestic violence. The training that goes along with it will have to be specialised. It is not a matter of telling someone to log on to a portal and that is how the matter is dealt with. The training will have to accompany the new leave. With the ratification of the ILO convention, training will necessarily follow. However, we do not have to wait. The discussions we are having today and the discussions the committee will have at a later date will inform public discourse, which means that the more people are talking about the issue, the less it is in the shadows.

The more we shine a light on it the better chance we have of nobody ever having to use this leave.