Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Five years ago, in 2019, I was approached by my Labour Party colleague, Councillor Alison Gilliland, who has since been Lord Mayor of Dublin and who was then an official of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO. She approached me because many members of the INTO had approached her and other officials to express concern about having to take time off work to undergo treatments for reproductive health-related issues, such asin vitrofertilisation, IVF. Many others had told her and other INTO officials of their experiences after losing a pregnancy early in term, before the 24th week. Some of them had reported having to return to work while still experiencing the emotional and physical symptoms of their experience – a number of them even still bleeding. All of them were traumatised by the experience and many felt unable to speak about it in their workplaces. If they were teachers, they felt unable to speak about it to their principals. All these women were united in not being able to acknowledge their experience in a formal way in the workplace or, indeed, to have any formal recognition of having had an early miscarriage or of having had to undergo IVF treatment.

This became a big issue for the INTO. In response, the union carried out a survey in 2019 and found that 60% of respondents, mostly women, as would be the case with the INTO membership, had faced reproductive health difficulties in their workplaces. Clearly, then, this was an issue for their members. A motion was passed at the union's annual conference seeking a change in the law to enable recognition of early pregnancy loss and reproductive health.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, to the Chamber. I was explaining the background to the legislation we in the Labour Party are bringing forward today. As I said, it stems from work done by the INTO and Councillor Alison Gilliland. I pay tribute to the INTO and to Alison for their pioneering work on this matter and for pushing this legislation. After passing the motion at its annual conference, the union approached me and my Labour Party colleagues to seek assistance in introducing a measure into law that would enable recognition for the first time of early pregnancy loss and of IVF treatment and reproductive health issues.

We worked on the Bill for some time and, in March 2021, I published this legislation as a Senator, along with other Labour Party Senators, to provide statutory leave to those suffering so-called early miscarriage, pregnancy loss early in term or needing time off for reproductive healthcare treatment.

The structure we used was to amend the existing Organisation of Working Time Act and to use that statutory framework to introduce this entitlement to a new, albeit relatively short, period of leave. I am conscious that we could have gone down a different route and used the employment equality legislation or the maternity protection legislation but we believed at the time that this was the appropriate framework because it already includes provision for force majeureleave. However, I said at the time we introduced this Bill that we would be happy to work with the Government to seek a more appropriate legislative framework, if required. We are not fussy about how it is done but we want some mechanism for women employees to be able to take reproductive health-related leave and to get formal recognition in the workplace.

We drafted this legislation following that input from the INTO. At the time, we knew that many teachers were suffering and enduring early miscarriage or pregnancy loss and finding their workplaces really not receptive or warm places in which to recover from their ordeal. However, nothing prepared us for the outpouring of correspondence we have received since we introduced the Bill from women across the country who suffered loss of pregnancy early in term, couples who have been balancing work commitments with IVF treatments and men watching their partners struggle with fertility issues. It has been incredibly moving. I have received highly personal and poignant messages from women struggling to conceive and having to undergo successive cycles of IVF without success and from women who have experienced miscarriage early in term and not so early in term. Miscarriage up to 24 weeks is simply not recognised in our workplaces and there is no entitlement to leave. Women have had to take sick leave or unpaid leave in order to recover from their experience.

What has been really moving is that some of the women and men who have disclosed the trauma of pregnancy loss to me had never shared it with others. The publication of this Bill and the debates on it in the Seanad that followed have uncovered a groundswell of feeling out there. We have talked about an unspoken tsunami of grief and the sort of loss that so many have experienced. It is, in fact, a very widespread issue but it is an unspoken one. We believe that publishing and bringing forward this Bill is also a way of highlighting this issue and this trauma and enabling more people to speak up and gain support from the experiences of others. It is what we call the need for leave when it matters most or the need for compassion in our law.

As with the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment, there is a groundswell of support for this and a sizeable group of people who feel that they were unable to speak up until now. This silence may have been due to stigma or just because it was so difficult to speak about their experience. As we know, reproductive healthcare has for far too long been marginalised as an issue in this country. That is why it is so important for us to push this Bill within the Oireachtas and to shift our workplaces to be a little bit kinder and more compassionate.

As I have said, we are conscious that a great many women have experienced this. It is estimated that 14,000 women experience pregnancy loss each year. Our maternity protection law currently only offers leave to those who endure this experience after 24 weeks. We need some recognition for earlier pregnancy loss.

This Bill passed through all stages in the Seanad and finished in that House last November. It had Government support there. We had hoped that we would today see Government accepting the Bill, at least on Second Stage, in the Dáil and then working with us to bring it into law in whatever format it wished. We are very disappointed to see the Government seeking to delay the Bill by 12 months when we know that an election is likely to have taken place in that time. One will certainly have had to have taken place within 14 months and yet the Second Reading of the Bill is to be delayed for 12 months. There is therefore no reality to the Bill becoming law during the term of this Government if the Government's amendment is accepted. That is deeply disappointing, not so much for us in Labour, but for all of those who are clearly and desperately affected. I urge the Minister not to move the amendment to delay the Bill.

We have seen the rationale offered by Government. It talks about the study it has commissioned. I will take the opportunity to thank those engaged in carrying out that study. I refer to the UCC pregnancy loss research group. It has conducted an incredible study into pregnancy loss in the workplace and it has been really valuable to see that work being done. Professor Keelin O'Donoghue, who has been leading the research, is in the Gallery for this debate. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, commissioned the research. He informed us of this research project in November 2022. He informed us of the plans in the equality committee following a Labour Party amendment to a Government Bill, which would have given effect to our Bill, being ruled out of order. We were concerned that the commissioning of the report might delay matters further but we now understand that the research has been completed.

I again thank Professor O’Donoghue, Professor Mary Donnelly, Dr. Marita Hennessy and Ruadh Kelly Harrington. They are to be commended on their extensive and detailed work, which I understand to shine a comprehensive light on the effect in the workplace of the experience of pregnancy loss and fertility issues. As I have said, these are issues that are very often shrouded in secrecy. In December, the research group presented preliminary findings to TDs and to the Labour Party and offered useful suggestions. Its survey of more than 900 individuals appears to confirm that 95% of those surveyed would seek to avail of specific leave if such a provision was in place rather than having to take sick leave or unpaid leave, as I have mentioned.

The work the group has done should serve as an impetus for Government to act and to work with us, the Minister for equality and other Ministers, if necessary, to find a way to make this legislation work. It is simply not good enough to see it being delayed further. My Labour colleagues in the Seanad, Senators Marie Sherlock, Rebecca Moynihan, Annie Hoey and Mark Wall, really pushed this legislation through in November and were really glad to get strong support from Government Senators as the Bill went through the different stages in the Seanad. It is therefore very disappointing to see a different approach now being taken in the Dáil and to see Government making use of this delaying tactic to delay further debate on the Bill for 12 months. I again appeal to the Minister of State to withdraw the amendment, to enable the Bill to pass Second Stage and to work with us - we are very happy to work with him - to see what amendments are necessary to ensure this Bill can become law. We would love to see it become law this calendar year, before the end of the Minister of State's Government's term.

I will point out that other countries have introduced this measure in different ways. New Zealand, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and others all have some form of reproductive health leave. It is not unprecedented. We have seen the Government introduce domestic violence leave, which is very welcome. Indeed, this made use of a similar structure, being introduced through the Organisation of Working Time Act. It is beyond time for the Government to move on this Bill. I appeal to the Minister of State to enable it to pass Second Stage today. It will have overwhelming support in this House and from the many women and couples for whom it really matters.

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