Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think I understand the Minister. I suppose there may be circumstances in which a kindly employer may wish to be flexible towards his or her employee and within the six months, notwithstanding that the employee is temporary or whatever the employee's status is, there may be circumstances in which an employer would say that it is within the six months, he or she would like to give the leave to the employee but he or she has looked at the legislation and it states the employer cannot. The legislation is being prescriptive by my interpretation.

Maybe I am wrong in my interpretation. Perhaps it could be looked at again. If it is overly prescriptive and if there are circumstances where an employer wants to give an employee within the six months some flexibility, maybe there is scope to do that or else maybe I am misreading the entirety of the section.