Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State referred to how disappointed we would be with a timed amendment. It pales in comparison to the disappointment that many women and couples will have who have had their eyes on this legislation for the last three years. We believe the Government is making a huge error, politically, in what it is doing here. Regardless of when the next election is going to take place, we know that a 12-month timed amendment in the life cycle of this Dáil means this Bill will never see the light of day again. It will have to be reintroduced in the next Dáil. Even if we did not have that situation, we have no confidence that the Government would do anything within the 12 months to bring this forward. There is no evidence it has done that with any of the other Bills that have come from us or other Opposition parties and that have received timed amendments. These timed or delayed amendments go back two and a half years, I think, from when the first one came in. They vary from nine to 12 months.

The Minister of State has said that this requires detailed scrutiny and that it is complex. We agree, and we feel the best place for that is on Committee Stage within the Oireachtas. If the Government wins the vote next Wednesday, this, as an issue and as a Bill, goes out the door and we will not see it again. What disturbs us most is that there is a template for actually getting complex pieces of legislation through. If we look at Coco's law, which started with my colleague, Deputy Howlin, who spoke a short time ago, and ended up being introduced and delivered by the Government in 2020, it was three years in development. It came from Opposition over to Government and we worked with the Government to get that done. There is a similar moral impetus to this legislation as well, and that is why we are bringing it forward. We are not wholly precious about every line or the Title of this Bill. We will work to get the essence of what this Bill is designed to do into law. We are bitterly disappointed for the women, couples and prospective mothers and fathers in this country who are not going to benefit from it for any number of years. I have spoken to women across my constituency and my own peer group. The Minister of State and I are of a similar age. There have been people in and out of my life over the last few years who have experienced fertility treatment and pregnancy loss, as there probably will be in the next few years. They need this legislation, and the Government is plainly denying them it. The 12-month timed amendment is an absolute cod, considering where we are and given the Government's track record on timed amendments. The piece of research that has been carried out by the INTO equality committee has done a lot of the initial heavy lifting. I think we can extrapolate its findings with confidence across many other, if not all, employment sectors and jobs. It is therefore absolutely unacceptable that we are in this situation in relation to this Bill today.

As I have said, our reproductive health Bill would remove the concern that prospective mothers have by providing up to 20 days of paid time off work in the case of pregnancy loss, acknowledging the profound physical and emotional impact that it has on individuals and families. Additionally, our legislation advocates for up to ten days of paid leave for those accessing fertility treatment. Again, the reasons for that have been outlined by my colleagues, Deputies Bacik, Nash and Howlin. There are 14,000 women who experience pregnancy loss every year. It is an extraordinary number and it does not come as a surprise to anybody in this House who talks to people in their lives and knows what their friends, family and peer group have been going through. The legislation offers empathy and dignity to workers of this country. It should be reason enough for members of this Government to immediately move to support the legislation through Second Stage and to get it to Committee Stage, where it can be rigorously analysed, teased out and amended as needs be to ultimately get it into law within 12 months, and not to delay it for 12 months.

Unfortunately, the Government as a whole has shown that when it comes to offering real and impactful change in this area, it has fallen short. I do not think this will be forgotten. The Government has misread the attention of the nation on this issue and I think it will pay a heavy price for that, because it is something that is deeply borne my many women - 14,000 a year - in this country. We also believe the Government's provision of publicly-funded IVF, which has been a step forward, leaves a lot to be desired. The legacy that this Government will leave in this area, by ultimately taking this Bill and ensuring it goes no further, will not be what be what it thinks it will be when it comes to the next general election. Nothing about this Bill cannot be enacted and amended in the next 12 months. It is a simple question of whether this Government wants to ensure that compassionate leave is available to people or not. That is how simple it is. That is the choice the Government has and the choice that, unfortunately, it has turned away from.

It is important to note that fertility treatments are rarely, if ever, a once off. That is something that we really want to pay attention to in this Bill. There are a whole series of tests, scans and procedures that take place. As one of my colleagues mentioned, there is also a lot of travel involved for many people to access these services. It is something that we are accounting for in the provisions of this Bill. It is something that the Government is failing to account for by proposing the timed amendment.

Tommy's, the pregnancy and baby loss charity, found that 20% of women experience PTSD after pregnancy loss, and 16% to 18% will suffer from anxiety and depression. These numbers go to the heart of the issue when we consider the 14,000 pregnancy losses per year and the high percentages of these very difficult, emotional responses. That is not counting the physical impact of pregnancy loss. We are treating pregnancy loss in this country like an illness, where we have to take sick leave and annual leave. It is not an illness; it is grief. We need to be a compassionate country. This is the test to determine if this Government is a compassionate one.

In the UCC research commissioned by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, a number of things are made clear. First, and most important, the findings show that most women need leave from work following a pregnancy loss. They need that leave. That is what research commissioned by the Government itself highlights. It also highlights the level of secrecy and stigma that is still attached to pregnancy loss. That is another reason why this empathetic piece of legislation needs to be brought to Committee Stage and brought into law. There is a fear of dismissal from work, a fear of discrimination in career progression, a fear of perceptions that people are not telling the truth or the full truth. There is a fear of being the subject of idle gossip and tittle-tattle around water coolers and in cafeterias. That comes from the stigma that is attached to it. It comes from the fact that we are not recognising it in legislation. We are not recognising that we need leave and that it should be on the same level as other statutory leave.

There is a growing awareness and importance of this need within the workplace. In the past 20 years, this country has taken strides forward in progressive changes throughout our society, but the issue of pregnancy loss and the difficulties surrounding IVF treatment have been left in the shadows and in the silence. By bringing this legislation forward, we can take another progressive step forward and shine a light on an area that for too long has been left in the dark. If the Government continues with the path that it chooses to take, it will be clear that once again, it has opted to turn its back on people when they really need it. When we really need compassion and to see the Government get into the detail of an issue and of workers' rights to leave, it is going to turn its back on it. The 12-month delay is an affront to the women and people of Ireland. The Government has a week to take a different path. Then, we will have between nine and 12 months to get this into law. We will work hard to do that with anyone in this House, including Government. I urge the Government to change its tactics on this.

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