Ms Jane Ann Duffy:

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth holds responsibility for the development of policy and legislative proposals on family leaves. As the committee will be aware, family leaves have undergone significant expansion in recent years. Since 2019, this has included the introduction of paid parent’s leave and its extension to seven weeks for each parent of a child under two years of age and the extension of unpaid parental leave to 26 weeks in respect of a child under 12 years of age.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 includes provisions for leave for medical care purposes and the extension of breastfeeding breaks. The Government has decided to bring forward, as part of that Bill, legislative proposals which will introduce domestic violence leave. These proposals are based on recommendations made as part of the domestic violence leave report.

The programme for Government contains a number of commitments aimed at addressing domestic violence leave, including the commitment to investigate "the provision of paid leave and social protection provision to victims of domestic violence." In response to this Private Members' Bill, the Government agreed to examine the feasibility of establishing a statutory entitlement to paid domestic violence leave and to provide a report. Work on the development of the domestic violence leave report began with a consultation process with relevant stakeholders, in particular service providers and victims' representative groups, through the monitoring committee of the second national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This consultation had the aim of gathering their views on how best domestic violence leave should operate to address the needs of victims most effectively.

Consultations also took place with social partners, including employer representative groups and trade unions, to get a better understanding of the needs of employers and employees in terms of introducing such leave. These consultations explored the current approach taken by businesses to support employees experiencing domestic violence, including where there were existing domestic violence workplace policies in operation and lessons from how those operated. Submissions were also invited through the national equality strategies and other stakeholders who represented minority and other seldom heard voices, including the national strategy for women and girls, the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy, the national LGBTI+ inclusion strategy, and the migrant integration strategy. Alongside these consultations, research was undertaken into the international experience around the introduction of domestic violence leave. A number of countries have some form of leave for this purpose, both paid and unpaid and with different criteria.

The outcome of the consultations and research informed the development of the recommendations in the domestic violence leave report. Some key considerations were the need for the leave not to operate independently of other supports, that it should be part of a broader workplace awareness and openness around domestic violence, and that it should be available as flexibly as possible, to be taken when and as needed, with no notice period required.

The report's first recommendation focuses on the need for a broader approach to help victims, but also to help managers understand how best they can support an employee who is a victim. The Department is tendering for a partner who will help us to develop templates and guidance for employers of all sizes. The report also recommends that five days of paid domestic violence leave be introduced, to be taken within a 12-month period, with a provision that this measure be reviewed within two years of introduction with the option to extend to ten days. In order to facilitate uptake as needed, it also recommends that no notice period be required. Further recommendations include that the leave should be available for a range of purposes, including relocation or to seek legal or other supports, and that employment protections should apply.

Committee Stage amendments to the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 are being finalised. These will be based on the detail of the recommendations that I have outlined.

I thank members for the invitation to meet the committee today. I am happy to answer whatever questions they may have on the development of the domestic violence leave report or on the legislative proposals.