Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, ag obair go crua i gcónaí. I accept that totally. I would be nowhere without them.

I have five daughters and, God bless her, one wife. We have three sons. Now we have six beautiful granddaughters and three wonderful little buachaillí óga - grandsons. It is a good mixture and a good blend. I get plenty of sound advice along the way and I am grateful for that. I thank God, for their health and for their support.

The Bill also amends the Maternity Protection Act 1994 to extend the entitlement to breastfeeding breaks to two years after the birth of the child. It also seeks to ensure that a transgender male who has, in accordance with the Gender Recognition Act 2015, obtained a gender recognition certificate and subsequently becomes pregnant, falls within the scope of the Maternity Protection Act 1994.

The Bill also amends the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 to correct anomalies arising from the amendments made under the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021. The Bill also makes necessary consequential amendments to the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

As an employer and having listened to employers, I make the point that these legislative measures are wide-ranging and quite technical. Although well intentioned, they can be problematic for employers, especially ordinary small SMEs. It is fine for the public service because there is lots of staff. I am not knocking the public service but there are staff there appointed in roles to understand and bed-in this legislation and get training on it etc. In a small business employing a couple of people, however, the time or energy is not there. They put every bit of time and energy into trying to motivate their business and trying to get business, deliver the business if it is a service and do the business and receive their remuneration and maintain their work-life balance as well.

We have not, until recent years, taken account of the impact of the legislation. There is not enough of pre-legislative scrutiny in many areas. We are always having issues about that but there certainly is no real impact analysis. Perhaps it should be enshrined in all legislation that we will revisit it after six months, 12 months or two years to see how it is bedding in, what are the impacts it has had, what are the unforeseen consequences which may be many, and where are the shortcomings. I was interested yesterday after a well-attended briefing in the audiovisual room on the mental health situation, where there was a good document published, to hear the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad tell that crowded audiovisual room that they have a piece of legislation and it is coming up for review after eight months. That is the first time I have seen that. It is very important. Especially in mental health but in any legislation, we should have an impact assessment. If I make a decision at work or in business, it always has some impact, either on customers or maybe on some of the employees. One must always be ready to reassess that, to see can you ameliorate it if there is a difficulty and try to have the best vision of it going forward and, above all, that the staff are sásta. The person who is happy in work and happy with what he or she has to do will achieve much more in a day's work and so will the company.

As I say, the Bill provides the right to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes for parents and carers. That is most important. Most employers are flexible insofar as they can. In some instances, it is not possible. I note it is for caring purposes. I wear the Carers Association's badge i gcónaí. It is a wonderful organisation. Apart from the organisation as it is only trying to manage and advocate, I have not an exact figure for the number of carers up and down the length and breadth of this country but it is quite a large and shocking number. In a survey a year and a half ago, I noted the number of child carers. These were children who should be taobh amuigh faoin spéir ag súgradh, ag imirt and doing what children should do. These children should be out playing and taking part in leisure activities such as sport, rince nó aon rud, for instance, swimming. To think that they might have to be in a situation of caring for their parents, a parent and maybe a sibling, certainly something imaginative needs to be done there.

The carers were very disappointed in the budget. While they got the once-off payment, they are not automatically linked to the fuel allowance. Caring is demanding and time consuming. Indeed, it drains people. They get the respite grant if they are approved carers to get a break once a year. They seldom get breaks because it is 24/7. Some people can be very challenging with serious illnesses. That is an area employers should try to work with, but the Government must do more to support the carers.

The Bill provides a right to leave for medical care purposes, both for employees with children up to the age of 12 and carers. It provides an extension of the current entitlement to breastfeeding lactation breaks for six months or two years. Regularly - I am sure it is the same in most Deputies' offices - my grandchildren get colds or flu. One of them, little Orlaith, was sick during the night. Bhí sí tinn. Granny is stepping in this morning, doing a great job today until 3 p.m. Her mother will work from home for the rest of the day, as well as minding the child. Rearing children of any age is not easy. You should not think you have them reared when they come to nine or ten, or up to 12. Often the difficulties only start at that age. I have them ranging in age, from almost 40 down to 20. I have lived experience there. I am not recounting a history of my own family; I am only saying every family is the same. It is much more difficult for single-parent families or for families that do not have the extended family of uncles or aunts, or, indeed, a seanmáthair or seanathair. It is challenging. It must be awfully challenging when people are abroad in a different country and trying to bring up children in a community that is different and has different ideas and values and different ways of life than we have in Ireland.

It is very important that we are aware of all this.

Many aspects of the legislation are welcome but there are some aspects that I do not welcome. Amendments will be introduced on Committee Stage to provide for a form of paid domestic violence leave. This is very important. Domestic violence is an appalling situation and its victims must be supported. The perpetrators must be brought to justice but they also need treatment because there is something seriously amiss or wrong. It is a heinous crime. We must have restorative justice so people learn the mistakes of their ways. They should not just be locked away but they should go back out to society and hopefully be retrained and advised on culture and what is expected. There is no place in society for domestic violence.

In recent weeks I have been very concerned to find out that we are so short on numbers in An Garda Síochána. Gardaí cannot do everything. No police force can work without the support of the people. When the economic crash occurred Templemore in my county was closed. It was reopened in a blaze of glory and I attended one or two of the passing out parades. Some great people have passed out and graduated with distinction. They have gone to various parts of the country. In recent years we have not been able to fill the places. At present there are only 24 trainees in Templemore. The Government announced 800 new places last year but they were not filled. It has announced 800 for this year but it cannot get people. There is something seriously wrong if we cannot attract young people, and older people given that the age limit was increased. This was a good move to get people with life experience. We have a big problem. Gardaí are the first line if there is domestic violence.

We saw recent issues where 999 calls were cancelled. This should not be happening. There are people out there who make these calls frivolously. They are not well and they waste time. It is only a small minority. A huge number of calls were cancelled and there has been no proper explanation as to what happened. This is very worrying. It will be of great concern if we cannot fill places in the Garda. We will have to look at the terms and conditions of their employment and their pension rights. It has become a very dangerous and challenging job. These are issues for another day.

We cannot keep passing legislation and expect the Garda and other agencies to enforce it where necessary if they do not have the manpower. This is why we have so many issues in this country with a lack of regulation. The regulators are toothless and there are not enough of them. They are brushed by and stood on by big business and corporate Ireland. It is very hard to train them. It is easy for people to arrive at my business with briefcases and sit down and speak to a small employer. Corporate businesses employing thousands and multibillion euro businesses do not pay. A company that started in this country and operates all over the world was fined $101 million. It is a multibillion euro company. It was fined by the state of New Jersey and rightly so. Here we do not have the wherewithal or the tools of the trade to deal with such companies.

I have noticed in recent times, certainly over the past eight years, that we have passed a lot of legislation, much of which I oppose. It is my duty to act for the people I represent. There is a huge push and clamour around some of this legislation. There is the whole area of deleting the words "mná" and "woman" in legislation.

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