Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support both amendments. They are most important. As has been said, it is really important we review legislation after it has been introduced.

I wish to raise a few points about the amendment in particular. One is the importance of a timeline on further extensions in parent's leave. It is most important. We have seen it last year and this year in particular. This leave was mooted last summer, announced in the budget nearly six months ago in October, and parents had wait on its introduction. Finally, they will be able to take this leave. A timeline in that respect is really important and is something we should all support.

I wish to ask a question on the EU work-life balance directive, which I raised yesterday, and the fact Ireland has to transpose this by June 2022. Perhaps I picked him up wrongly, but I believe the Minister said the Government has until 2024 to introduce the nine weeks' leave in line with the requirements of the directive. I ask the Minister to confirm that and with, that, whether that was an extension to 2024 sought by the Government rather than transposing it by June 2022.

On the issue of lone parents, as a State we have let down lone parents and their families for decades. This legislation is poor in that the babies of lone parents will not have the same support and time with their parent as babies in two-parent families. That is a great shame. We saw the changes that were made to the one-parent family payment back in 2012, and we saw the consequences of that in the Indecon report which showed those very changes made life harder for lone parents in respect of poverty and deprivation. I hope we will not make the same mistake with this Bill, which we will if this amendment is not accepted and the Minister does not outline clearly today how he is going to resolve this issue for lone-parent families.

They have been let down for far too long and the Minister should make that change in the legislation.

Finally, the rate of payment is an important aspect of this legislation. We know there is a low take-up of parent's leave and parental leave, particularly among men, and we need to address that. We can do so by looking at the rate of payment. On European comparisons, it is very low relative to average wages.

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