Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil fully supports the Bill. It is very progressive legislation. It will ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life. It supports parents to spend more time with their children. As the dad of three children aged five and under, I really cherished the early days when our children came home from the maternity hospital. There were added benefits in that regard because, like most women shortly after giving birth, my wife was absolutely exhausted in those early days and needed a significant amount of help. It is great to have dads available to provide such help.

The legislation provides for a lot more beyond that. It amends the Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019 to increase the duration of paid parental leave from two weeks to five weeks. That too is very progressive. Each parent will be given an additional three weeks of paid leave and that period can be taken within the first two years after birth or adoptive placement as the case may be. Another very progressive feature of the legislation is that it will amend the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 in order that married same-sex couples can avail of adoptive leave.

This was an unfair anomaly that will now be addressed. I was able to take time out of work, albeit a very short period of a couple of days, to spend time with my kids after they were born. That opportunity was denied to many and I am glad this anomaly will now be cleared up and addressed.

On a slightly related topic, I will address the issue of a lack of social workers to deal with adoption applications. My understanding is there is a significant backlog at the moment, with many children who have been in long-term foster care awaiting adoption to a loving home. Many of those people are now nearing the age of 18 when they will become adults and will, thereby, potentially fall outside the net of adoption. The acute shortage of social workers has been brought to my attention by several families in Clare who have taken up the call and the cudgels for children in need. Such foster families got calls from the HSE and Tusla late at night and over weekends asking them to take in vulnerable children. They have done that and shown those children love, affection and care in abundance. Everyone wants to formalise that arrangement and adopt those children but the lack of social workers makes that impossible. Cases that one would hope would take a few months to conclude are dragging on for years to the point where the child concerned is becoming an adult and falling outside the net of adoption.

The Adoption (Amendment) Act of 2017 was great legislation and there are many progressive elements within but it will not have real and meaningful effect unless we have enough social workers to enable all of the elements of that legislation to be fully fired up and working. At the heart of this are families who love and care for children they have fostered. We had multiple debates in this Chamber about the mother and baby home saga and heard time and again that people yearn for a sense of belonging and a feeling of being a part of a family unit. We need to look at this issue. Perhaps the officials from the Minister's Department can make a note of this issue, look at where the shortfall is and seek to address it.

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