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

I thank my Labour Party colleagues, Deputies Howlin, Nash, Smith and Ó Ríordáin, who have spoken so eloquently on this Bill. I will pick up where Deputy Ó Ríordáin finished; this is a matter of gender equality. I thank colleagues across the Opposition who have supported this Bill and who have seen it as a measure to introduce better provision for women in the workplace in particular. I said earlier that about 14,000 women in Ireland experience pregnancy loss each year. This does not just affect women; it affects their partners and it affects couples. We know that between one in four and one in six couples experience fertility issues and that more than one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage. This is a huge issue that affects a huge number of people but it is also a women's rights and a workplace rights issue.

This Bill was first debated in the Seanad in 2021 and three years have passed since then. Now the Minister of State is proposing another year's delay before we even come to a further debate on the Bill. How many more women will experience miscarriage in that time? How many more couples will be looking for IVF and going to multiple appointments without any provision in the workplace for leave? I have listened to the Minister of State's remarks and to the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, and we in the Labour Party accept that the legislation can be improved on. There have been changes to workplace law since we first introduced this Bill. There are new statutory frameworks around leave and we are prepared to work with the Minister of State to use other means than the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 framework through which we can introduce this provision. The important thing is the provision for compassionate leave, not how we do it or the vehicle. We can move to do it through maternity protection legislation; I take the Minister of State's point on that and that would remove the onus from the employer. We can do it through those other structures.

I have prided myself on collaboration with Government and Opposition colleagues throughout my career in the Oireachtas, as have my Labour Party colleagues, whether it has been on Coco's law; collective bargaining rights; children's citizenship rights; ending discrimination against LGBTQ teachers; or prohibiting female genital mutilation. My Labour Party colleagues and I have worked with others to bring our Private Members' Bills into law. We are keen to continue doing this and to use this Bill to work with the Government to ensure we have compassionate leave when it matters most. It matters most for those many women and couples who have contacted us.

We know the Government has conducted research. We know that research is concluded. I referred earlier to Professor Keelin O'Donoghue and the study on pregnancy loss under 24 weeks but we have not heard from the Government on when it proposes to publish that research. We know it is concluded and we have heard preliminary findings. The Minister of State has referred to the recommendations in the report. I have submitted parliamentary questions to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, seeking a response on when the study will be published. The Minister of State's briefing, which we were provided with this evening, says it will be published shortly but neither the Minister of State nor the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, said in their speeches when that would be.

I ask the Minister of State to follow up with us on this point before the vote on the amendment the Minister of State is proposing, which will take place next week. The Government cannot get away with introducing an amendment to delay further consideration of this Bill. It cannot use that fantastic research study as its excuse for a delaying amendment and then not even commit to publishing that research or letting us know what the recommendations in it are. I would like to join my Labour Party colleagues in making a last plea to the Government to reconsider its position. We will not see a vote on the Government's delaying amendment until next week so let us use that time to work with the Minister of State and other Government Departments that are affected to produce a plan to introduce paid leave for early pregnancy loss, reproductive healthcare and compassion in the workplace. Our political system can change lives radically for the better, or it can look the other way.

Kicking this Bill down the road as the Government is trying to do amounts to looking the other way and not hearing from the women and the couples who are living the reality of pregnancy loss and fertility issues.

I will finish by recounting something that was said to me by a woman who experienced or suffered or endured what we call an early miscarriage. She said that language of early miscarriage does not reflect her feeling or the feeling of her partner in losing what was a much-wanted pregnancy. As she said to me, often that so-called early miscarriage has followed many years of pregnancy losses and multiple rounds of IVF treatment, of endlessly trying and failing to conceive a baby. Depriving women and couples in her position of any time off or any official recognition in the workplace because the pregnancy was lost before 24 weeks or because of foetal weight issues lacks compassion. Our Bill would provide compassionate leave for women and couples in that position when it matters most. It would create a modern understanding of this experience in the workplace. Women like the woman who spoke with me can of course apply for sick leave in such a situation, but they are not sick. They can take annual leave, but that is not what annual leave is for. I am appealing to Minister of State to let us enable proper, formal recognition in the workplace of this form of loss, namely, of pregnancy loss and fertility treatment issues, and let us legislate rather than delay for a further 12 months. It is unnecessary and it is not compassionate.

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