Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As my colleagues have indicated, Fianna Fáil supports the provisions of the Bill. However, it needs to be more inclusive in order to ensure that all parents, no matter their sexual orientation, have equal access to this benefit. Parents, no matter their sexual orientation, love their children, whether birth children or adopted children. Those first few weeks of a baby's life are to be cherished, and the Bill needs to be inclusive to provide for all circumstances of both parents as well as to allow time for employers to adapt to these new measures.

It appears that the Government has not engaged properly with employers in the drafting of the Bill. The Minister of State advised the Seanad that the Government ran out of time when compiling the Bill. This is clearly not good enough and simply a further example of how this Government is reactive rather than proactive. The shared maternity benefit Bill, introduced by Fianna Fáil in July of last year, allows for maternity leave to be shared among parents - with the approval of the mothers, of course. This is more in line with many EU countries where maternity leave is shared. Such an approach is more in line with the hectic lifestyles of modern families living from day to day, and I ask the Minister of State to consider it.

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