Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats also welcome this Bill. It is an important step towards facilitating work-life balance and giving the supports families need to take care of their children. Many parents will breathe a sigh of relief when they see this Bill is before the Dáil and it is hoped they will soon see the effects of the legislation on the ground. Parents have been waiting for this for a long time and particularly in light of what has happened over the past year. There has been a lot of anxiety about when this leave was going to become available. I, too, commend the work of the Extend Maternity Leave group which has done enormous work in keeping this issue at the forefront of all of our minds.

I will focus on the entire system. There was a missed opportunity when implementing or bringing this Bill to the Dáil because reform of the parental leave system was not examined. It is a confusing system and there are many different provisions and elements to it. Parents have for years had to navigate a confusing and convoluted system of parental leave entitlements in this country. Year on year, the Government might drip-feed an extra week here or an extra two weeks there, adding to an ever-burgeoning legislative framework. New parents today need to analyse what is available to them. The provisions come under maternity benefit, maternity leave, paternity leave, parent’s benefit, unpaid parental leave and various other supports. It is quite a complex system to get one's head around. There was an opportunity to streamline that system and invest in it properly. The drip-feeding and baby steps we are taking on the issue are not giving the needed certainty and security to families.

We are seeing more and more additions to this long list of leave. When they are combined, these supports are still far behind our European counterparts in both paid and unpaid leave for parents. Although it affects both men and women, the consequences apply disproportionately to women. That has contributed to a low uptake in these supports by both parents, under-representation of women in the labour market, the gender pay gap and the burden of care falling mainly on women.

Furthermore, there is a large gap between the end of paid leave and the beginning of subsidised preschool in Ireland, which currently stands at 138 weeks. The Social Democrats brought through legislation to increase unpaid parental leave which has closed that gap somewhat, but when it is compared with the 86 weeks in France and 115 weeks in the UK, there is still quite a substantial difference. Closing the gap is crucial because families are forced to pay exorbitant childcare fees to cover the time between the end of parental leave supports and early years education. Some women end up having to reduce their hours or leave the workforce entirely as a result of not being able to afford childcare fees while others remain in their jobs in the hope that their incomes will surpass childcare fees at some point and it will be worth their while staying and working.

The confusing parental leave system, lack of paid parental leave and the gap between parental leave and the start of early years education present huge barriers to parents. It has also contributed to the overall lack of certainty facing families in this country. Each year, parents are drip-fed parental entitlements depending on the Government that is in place. To be cynical, how much leave is given sometimes depends on where we are in the electoral cycle. I acknowledge the Minister inherited this system and it is good to see he is aiming to improve it, but a week's leave here and two weeks' leave there is not what families need. Parents and families need much more certainty and investment in this area.

Covid-19 has magnified this level of uncertainty. Parents have become childminders, teachers and parents while working on top of all these incredibly stressful demands. Women, in particular, have found juggling these aspects of the pandemic all too much. Many have used up parental leave when they never intended to use it just so they could manage childcare while schools were closed or focus on their family’s needs during lockdown.

I welcome the additional three weeks as a result of budget 2021 but there was a lack of clarity as to when parents could claim this, the time limit for claiming the payment and whether the payment would be backdated. There had been an expectation the payment could be claimed from January or early in the year onwards, but it now seems it will be April before it is available. The added confusion at a time when parents are dealing with huge levels of uncertainty is not helpful.

What families need most at this difficult time during the global pandemic is certainty. Furthermore, the myriad legislation covering this area makes it unclear what people are entitled to as it keeps changing year on year. Families find it difficult to plan around childcare, schools and for other children in the family. This is not what paid parental leave legislation should be about. It should be about clarity, certainty and creating a supportive environment to help families manage their already stressful work-life balance.

The Government had an opportunity to streamline this process and I have put forward an amendment for Committee Stage which encourages the Minister to conduct a policy and budgetary analysis on a potential further extension of leave under this Act from five weeks to nine weeks, as is required under the EU directive, and establish a timeline for that provision. The reporting mechanism will also ask the Minister to consider the degree to which the directive requires further transposition into Irish law and to present a timeline for its full implementation.

That is the certainty families need. When people sit down to work out their annual budget, they need to know whether they can afford to have children, how that would be facilitated and if it would be feasible for them. Having that clarity would certainly help.

To address the disruptions caused to family life during the pandemic, I have also proposed within the amendments that the time limit of parental leave would be increased from the proposed two years to three. This would go a long way to bridging the gap between parental leave and the start of early education. In France, for example, claim periods often end when universal primary school starts. As the gap between the end of all parental leave and the start of primary school is still quite wide in Ireland and presents a barrier to women returning to work, three years is the perfect number as the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme begins for most children when they reach the age of three. In my amendment I propose that we give an extra year to parents to seek that leave.

I also wish to briefly address the issue of parents parenting alone. That is a big gap area that I have mentioned to the Minister previously. When developing the Bill and policy in this area it is too often forgotten that families come in all different shapes and sizes and that our policies need to reflect that. I proposed these recommendations in the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth on the basis of consultation with various groups. It was a missed opportunity to not recognise that the policy must be child-centred. Children will benefit from having their parents involved, whether that is one parent or two parents.

We must also address the gender imbalance, but in the case of people parenting alone, the provisions should apply to them. I welcome the Bill. I hope the Minister will consider my amendments and support parents as they navigate the global pandemic. I also hope that he will support women and gender balance, support children in their development and provide a work-life balance for families. I will hand over to my colleague, Deputy Gannon.

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