Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It will require employers to liaise with the Department of Social Protection in regard to each individual's entitlement. I accept that currently when a person goes onto half pay this is automatically calculated on a computer and that as no two situations will be the same, depending on the family situation, this will be difficult to deal with. However, as I stated earlier this measure will in terms of the statistics in regard to the number of people in the lower pay grades affect women more than men.

Another issue not addressed but by which women will be affected is pregnancy-related illness. I believe the current arrangements should be reconfigured to exempt pregnancy-related illness from this scheme, although I do not know if it is possible to do so at this stage. As the Minister is aware only females get pregnant. I know he will say that there is nothing in the legislation that discriminates against women but the practical implications of it, because only women can get pregnant, is that it will have an impact on women that it cannot possibly have on men. This is further evidence that this legislation was not gender proofed.

Some women have a couple of children. A woman who becomes pregnant and acquires a pregnancy related illness, who has been already previously absent from work with an illness, will because of the counting backwards aspect of the sick leave calculation aspect, be moved from full to half pay sooner than would otherwise be the case if she had not acquired the pregnancy related illness. I am not seeking an exemption for women in respect of non-pregnancy related illness. However, where an illness is defined by a consultant or doctor as a pregnancy related illness this illness should be exempted in the context of the reduction to half pay. The Minister might consider this matter when drawing up the regulations. It would be only fair that he do so. I do not propose to get into the politics of cuts in maternity leave and so on. The Minister should try to do something to address that issue.

As stated earlier, I am not happy that the Bill has had to be recommitted in respect of these amendments. The Minister has made a virtue of pre-legislative scrutiny. This aspect of the legislation is far more fundamental than what was provided for in the original legislation. In time, this aspect of the legislation is what people will rely on. Most public servants will get sick at some stage during their 40 year working career. This legislation will greatly impact on them. Issues such as redeployment will not necessarily affect many people during the course of their employment. As this is a bigger issue it would have been useful if it had been brought forward earlier in the year.

I know the Minister will say it is before the Labour Court and that negotiations are ongoing and so forth. I understand that and I made those points earlier in the day.

I read line by line the document the Minister has issued on critical illness. I am satisfied with all of it, by and large, bar the exclusion of mental illness. The Minister specifically referred to physical injury. I realise the Minister will say that it can come in under critical illness but the Minister has stipulated physical injury. People will ask why he has excluded the other category. Since the Minister went to the trouble of listing physical injury, he could have referred to mental illness. Some of the examples are given at the back and I follow the logic in all of those. They refer to people being out in various circumstances. Some of them are clear, for example, the case of someone who has schizophrenia. The Minister gave the example of how such a person would be entitled to be included under critical illness. Another situation might involve someone who perhaps had a difficult family situation on a once-off basis and for whom, perhaps, an early return to work might not be good, either for him or his colleagues. Perhaps he may need extra time. I am impressed generally with the document, except for the omission that I would have preferred to see included. The Minister will tell me it is covered in any event.

I may think of some more points during the debate. The Minister can see the way I am coming at it. If he cannot change a great deal today, perhaps he can when it comes to the regulations. When the Minister is publishing the regulations, will he send the committee members a copy? I realise they will be laid before the Oireachtas but we get so many e-mails that we could easily miss them. Will the Minister make a point of sending the document to the committee secretariat in order that we can see a copy and read it? The Minister might consider the matter of pregnancy related illness when he is making the regulations.

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