Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let us for the public record state that, absolutely, Chairs within the Houses of the Oireachtas find themselves in the invidious position of having to sign off on these letters when somebody somewhere deems committee amendments are disallowed because there is a charge on the Exchequer. As proposer of the amendment, nobody comes to me to say they think the amendment will impose such a charge. I cannot for the life of me see why the Labour Party amendment should be disallowed. We clearly state the entitlement is leave without pay. How could that impose a charge on the Exchequer? It cuts out a raft of debate on meaningful issues on a range of legislative proposals put forward by the Government and the Opposition. That is a philosophical point, one could argue, but I would have thought an amendment of this nature would be pertinent to the Bill. The name of the Bill is the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 and we merely sought to put in place something that would speak to thousands of women. There is an attitudinal issue, whether we like it or not, regarding reproductive health-related leave where women encounter massive opposition from a small minority of employers. I know of women who used 90% of their annual leave for IVF treatment. I know of women who described their humiliation when they sought unpaid leave after a miscarriage and were turned down by an employer who said miscarriage is common and most people just get on with it. If we can find a mechanism to legislate for that under the ambit of this legislation, we would support that, but I cannot for the life of me see why our amendment was disallowed. I appreciate what the Chair is going to say.