Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I rise on behalf of the Labour Party to support the Sinn Féin motion. We welcome this unambiguous motion that should warrant the support of the majority of the Members of this House.

I reread the Minister's speech as I found part of it quite difficult to understand. She stated:

The change being sought is complex from a legal perspective. It is not as simple as is being suggested. Adopting the proposed measure would require me, as Minister for Justice and Equality, to bring forward primary legislation to amend the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 to 2004, in order to provide that women who had already started or completed their maternity period would be entitled to take a further 13 weeks' leave. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection would also be required to amend the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended, to provide for the associated payment of maternity benefit at €245 per week for the period of any extension.

The Minister continued:

What is proposed in the motion would require legislation to have a retrospective effect. Retrospective legislation, as the House will be aware, is extremely rare and can raise constitutional issues. In addition, there may be legal difficulties in identifying the relevant cohort to which the amendment would apply.

With all due respect to the Minister, whom I wish well in her role, for a Minister to come into the Houses of the Oireachtas and give as an excuse for not dealing with this issue the line that it would be too complex from a legal perspective is condescending and patronising to those of us who represent the very women who have given us the testimonials of just how much this crisis has affected them. If we had as a bar or standard that all legislation would have to be simple and clear before we could proceed, we would never get anything done in this House. In fact, we would never have introduced the extensive legislation in respect of the Covid pandemic, which gave rise to many Government initiatives and which was extremely complex. The Minister and the Government should rethink their approach to this issue. Using the excuse that the matter is complex is not good enough for the women who have sought changes to the legislation and who voiced the concerns we have heard tonight.

Childcare is an issue we have been raising for months in this House. This is the fourth time I have pointed out that we have yet to come up with a solution in respect of childcare in this country. To be frank about it, the Government has been found wanting. We now have testimony from so many providers and parents in respect of their inability to provide childcare facilities for babies under the age of one year. We are now seeing the evidence of a regressivity having crept in as a result of Covid-19 in respect of women's rights in this country. I ask the Government to please revisit this issue from a policy point of view because this pandemic has had a massive effect on women and their ability to progress in their careers and in society as a whole. That effect has not been fully measured. No quantum or metrics have been fully put behind it. There is some nascent research from the Central Statistics Office. I ask the Government to please revisit this issue on behalf of those women in order that we can bring forward progressive ideas on how women can progress in their jobs and in society.

There is no Green Party Minister in the Chamber, although there may be one here later on in the evening. I do not wish to attack anybody, but we have before us testimony from Deputy O'Gorman, who is now a Minister. I wish him well in his Ministry. He raised this issue in the Dáil on 20 May when he asked whether the then Minister had considered how groups such as women returning from maternity leave and employees returning from sick leave had been impacted by the current definition of specified employee under the temporary wage subsidy scheme. He asked if the Minister had considered extending the statutory period of maternity leave, and the period of payment of maternity benefit, to provide protection for women who would otherwise be returning to work during the Covid-19 crisis. The current Minister asked in a parliamentary question on 3 June, just last month, if the Minister for Justice and Equality - at the time it was Deputy Flanagan - would consider extending maternity leave and benefit for those women moving into the unpaid entitlement phase of their maternity leave during the Covid-19 crisis, and if he would make a statement on the matter. There was a very clear, unambiguous position by one of the constituent parties of the Government in respect of dealing in an honest and forthright way with this issue on behalf of the thousands of women affected.

The Government's response tonight has fallen a little short of expectations. The Minister cannot come to the House and speak about the "unexpected additional burden to our key SME sector", having presumably heard the concerns of the SME sector in respect of this issue. The SME sector is only one sector in society. I know the Minister has to represent every swathe of society in this argument but there seems to be too much of what the SME sector has said in her response to this motion and not enough of what an august body, the National Women's Council of Ireland, has said. That it supported this campaign on behalf of the women of Ireland should be enough for any progressive Government to stand up and take stock, listen and respond accordingly.

It is not long since Members of this House, now Ministers of the Government, stood up in this House and, to coin a phrase, spoke on the side of the angels on this issue. It is deeply disappointing that they have gone to the other side in a heartbeat. The testimonials are real. These are emails from real people that we are all receiving. A baby girl was screened due to reflux and no hands-on help was available or recommended from GPs, lactation consultants and osteopaths. It was said that phone consultations are not the same. The baby suffered unnecessarily for weeks until things settled down for her. Her parents suffered. Another mother said this was not the happy maternity leave she was looking forward to when having her baby. She is due back to work in September but she cannot get childcare sorted due to restrictions. This means she will need to take unpaid leave, which will create its own financial stresses and burdens.

Many of us will have gone through this process. As a father of two small children, I can relate to this. However, because we were not then in a Covid-type situation, my family had access to all of the services that new parents can expect to avail of. These were not available for many of these women. As a society, we can do a lot more. Senator Marie Sherlock, who, in case anyone is wondering, is a first cousin of mine, got the wording right on this issue, when she said the following:

The extension in parental leave will not become available until November 2020. This means that the crisis facing a number of parents who have exhausted all their maternity, paternity and parental leave and who cannot secure childcare for their young baby is not resolved. These parents are still facing stark choices.

Will the Minister revisit this issue? I know she is a progressive Minister and if she were to revisit this, she would do a great service to many women and families throughout this country.

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