Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

From time to time when Opposition Members must engage with the Government on legislation, it may seem to be very rancorous and confrontational. This is the nature of Parliament. As the Minister of State has said, this Bill is part of a substantial baseline body of legislation on the subject of maternity and the provision of child care relief when a new person comes into the house. I compliment the Minister of State on bringing forward those three pieces of legislation. We will all admit that this Bill was a bit longer in coming than the others. It should not take too much work to update those pieces of legislation to improve them and bring us somewhere nearer to what our European neighbours consider to be the norm.

I thank the Chair for the efficient manner in which it conducted the debate and the Minister of State for being forthright and frank with us regarding the things he could and could not do. I thank his departmental staff who clearly have done considerable work on these pieces of legislation. Families are waiting for this Bill and for the other two Bills which have been dealt with in the recent past. It is the case that we are all out working and are very busy and owing to financial commitments, we cannot afford to take the time off which we want to spend with our children. Government is about ensuring we have some degree of work-life balance. These pieces of legislation which have been updated, improved, expanded and increased will make life much easier of all of us and will make this a society rather than an economy.

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