Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know there are some employers who already offer early pregnancy loss leave and, indeed, some that offer it to fathers as well as mothers experiencing this. That is a very good thing. We have introduced sick leave, as of 1 January 2023, that is any form of medical leave, once there is a doctor's certificate that can cover treatments, such as IVF and early pregnancy loss, but I appreciate these are discrete issues. The difficulty that the Government is running into is that there are a huge number of different proposals for various new forms of leave. The Deputy mentioned two forms of leave. There is also bereavement leave, for example, which involves unpaid leave but not paid leave. We have a series of different proposals for different forms of leave, in addition to different forms of payment associate with that leave. The Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are coming together to examine the issue in the round in order that we get it right. We must also take into account the costs for employers, which are not irrelevant.

See this speech in context