Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, announced last month that the Government had approved the domestic violence leave report. Recommendation 4 of that report states that employers should retain the right to request proof of abuse from a victim seeking leave. This recommendation reflects the disappointing and regressive position contained within IBEC's submission to the Department. Such a provision would be deeply inappropriate and totally unnecessary. When questioned at last week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Tánaiste stated that he did "not see how evidential proof could be a requirement of the legislation" and that such a provision would make the legislation effectively "unworkable". Does the Taoiseach agree with the Tánaiste on this and if so, will he give a commitment that there will be no requirement for proof of abuse included in this legislation?

I also ask the Taoiseach to reconsider the Government’s decision to cut in half the existing entitlement. The standard leave entitlement provided for in the public and private sector is ten days, as is the statutory provision in the North. When Fianna Fáil first committed to the introduction of this leave in 2018 it committed to ten days of leave. Reducing this to five days also goes against existing Government policy. Last year, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, wrote to all the universities to ask that they introduce ten days of paid leave for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and the main universities have since agreed to do so. Surely the Government wants to make progress rather than row back on existing provisions.

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