Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies across the House for their support for this legislation. It was noticeable from the contributions that we all recognise the challenges families have faced and face, particularly the challenges new families face. Those first months after the birth of a child are always a challenging time but Covid has magnified every single challenge in society. The measure we are taking today is a small recognition on behalf of the Government to all parents of children born from 1 November 2019. A number of Deputies spoke about parents missing out on this. Any and each parent of a child born since 1 November 2019 will benefit from those additional three weeks and any and each parent of a child born following the passage of this legislation and its signing by the President, hopefully some time next week, will benefit from five weeks of paid parent's leave going forward.

Aside from that recognition for parents who have had a child during the last year and parents going forward, it also addresses that discrimination against male same-sex married couples when they seek to adopt. It provides all future adoptive couples with the right to decide which member of the adoptive couple takes the adoptive leave. It removes the assumption that it would be a woman in a mixed gender couple taking up the leave, it provides for additional members for the Tusla board and it addresses the personal injuries guidelines.

I would like to take the chance to address some of the issues Deputies raised during the debate. First, I want to talk about surrogacy. Contrary to what some Deputies said, I confirm that commissioning surrogate parents can avail of parent's leave in situations where the father's name is on the birth certificate or is recognised as the father. In that case, both parents will qualify for this parent's leave. Most surrogate parents will qualify for the leave and benefit provided for under this legislation.

It has been noted in a number of the contributions that there is a significant gap in the law in this country when it comes to surrogacy. Yesterday, I brought to Cabinet a report done by the special rapporteur on child protection, Dr. Conor O'Mahony, on the issue of surrogacy, on the gaps in the law in Ireland and on proposals on how we could address those gaps. That has been laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and I have no doubt many Deputies will seek to look at that report. It is a valuable contribution to this area. There is a Bill within the Department of Health addressing some of these issues but we all understand that there is a need for legislation to address issues around surrogacy and at all times to do so from a child-centred point of view.

Deputies spoke about the continued implementation of the work-life balance directive and Deputy Pringle spoke about some elements of that. There is an obligation on member states to transpose that directive by summer 2022. We have an extension for certain elements of it to summer 2024. Included in the areas we have an extension for is the obligation contained within the directive to provide for nine weeks of paid parent's leave. We are up to five weeks. It is my intention that we will achieve that nine weeks and that we will do so within the time period given to us. That is subject to engagement with the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at each budget.

The cost of this per year is a significant investment of €28.6 million and a valuable investment in supporting parents. I want to see that continue to be extended out in further budgets. That is my aim and I have said that publicly. It is subject to resources being available but I will be engaging in each budgetary process to increase the amount of paid parent's leave we provide for each parent. Future changes will be done by statutory instruments. Legislation will not be required so that will allow it to be done more quickly.

Many Deputies raised the important issue of lone parents and that has to be addressed. I have met the National One Parent Family Alliance and we discussed this legislation and other issues. Many Deputies rightly recognised that the risk of children living in poverty increases in the situation where it is a one-parent family. This directive is clear that paid parent's leave cannot be transferable. Those nine weeks we are seeking to achieve cannot be transferable between parents and we are seeking to implement and transpose this directive with this legislation. We are going to correctly transpose this directive and the directive is based on the concept that both parents should be taking a parenting role and should be supported by the State in doing so. Our hands are tied when it comes to not having the leave transferable between parents.

There is a real need for us to recognise the vulnerability of one-parent families and I discussed that with the National One Parent Family Alliance. There is a real need for Departments to be much more co-ordinated in their response to the needs of one-parent families. In my Department, I am looking at the impact of the national childcare scheme, NCS, and how certain elements of that are creating difficulties for one-parent families. Within the programme for Government, there is a clear recognition of the need to support one-parent families and in particular to look at the good work that was done in the last Oireachtas by the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Its report on the position of lone parents in Ireland was completed three or four years ago but it is still a good piece of work and that was recognised in the programme for Government. Some provision was made in the budget to remove the €425 weekly income limit on parents in receipt of the one-parent family payment, which was significant.

It is also important to recognise who can benefit from parent's leave in this Bill because it is not just the parent of the child. It is the parent of the child along with his or her spouse, civil partner or cohabitant. It is not just the biological parent who benefits from this legislation. That is an important flexibility that was written into the legislation in order to recognise the great diversity of family situations that exist in the country.

A number of Deputies spoke about wider issues of leave. I recognise that Deputy Duncan Smith spoke about a Bill on reproductive leave from Senator Bacik that is before the Seanad and I will examine that. We will continue to examine and look to expand the types of leave that we provide. I have indicated what I hope to do in the future expansion of parent's leave.

As Deputies will know, I am working on introducing a scheme of domestic violence leave, which will be important, particularly in the context where we know that poverty is often a constraint on individuals fleeing situations of domestic violence. If we can provide them with some paid leave, even in that initial time when they first leave the family home, it gives a small element of support and I am looking forward to bringing proposals on that to Cabinet later this year.

I have consulted social partners, trade unions and employers' groups in recent weeks and work on this area is ongoing.

Several Deputies spoke about the importance of what we are doing in removing the discrimination against same-sex male married couples who were not entitled to seek adoptive leave. Deputy Pringle spoke very eloquently about this very significant step. It was a lacuna and an anomaly. It was not deliberate, but it should not have been in our law and it is important that we are able to address that by what we are doing today.

I will deal with a number of smaller points. Some Deputies referred to Tusla not having enough social workers. Deputy Cathal Crowe spoke about it in the context of adoption. After a number of years where the number of social workers was falling, last year the agency had a net gain of 129 social workers. It is currently undergoing quite an innovative scheme whereby it is looking to take on newly graduated social workers directly into an employment scheme, which I welcome.

There was significant discussion of childcare. I assure Deputies that I am working very hard to reduce the cost of childcare, and improve the quality and availability of childcare. As part of that quality element we are ensuring that our childcare professionals are properly paid. As Deputies probably know, two weeks ago I wrote to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment asking it to begin the process of creating a joint labour committee, JLC, between representatives of childcare providers and the trade unions representing childcare professionals and use that industrial relations mechanism to introduce a wage scheme in that sector to ensure childcare professionals are appropriately remunerated for the amazing work they do.

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