Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 27, line 31, to delete “42 days” and substitute “28 days”.

On amendment No. 12, Sinn Féin has sought to create a reasonable length of time by which an employer must appeal a compliance notice. Originally, I sought a period of two weeks in this regard but this was deemed to be too short. I noted that, recently, the Government gave a four-week space to the survivors of symphysiotomy to make a claim with regard to the new redress scheme starting from 10 November. Only in exceptional circumstances will a person who has suffered the terrible violence of symphysiotomy have an opportunity to seek redress after that four-week period has elapsed. Consequently, it is bewildering that the Minister of State would argue the case for an unscrupulous employer, who already has been found guilty of a breach of employment law, to have a compliance notice timeframe that would be longer than that available to these elderly, infirm women. It shows a lack of consistency in the Government's approach to two significantly different experiences in Irish society. I imagine that personally, like me, the Minister of State will be thinking it is quite shocking that the State would treat these two groups so differently.

Amendment No. 13 is the same and the points I have made with regard to amendment No. 12 also relate to the other amendments.

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