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

Each year it is estimated that 14,000 women in Ireland experience pregnancy loss yet currently, as we know, there is no provision in law for any leave for women who experience an early miscarriage - a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks - or for employees who seek time off work to access reproductive healthcare treatments like IVF. We in the Labour Party brought forward a Private Member's Bill last Thursday to deal with that, to address that issue and to provide for reproductive health leave.

We were very disappointed that the Government sought to put in a year-long stay on debate on that Bill. We will vote tomorrow night on that 12-month delaying amendment and because the House will likely not be sitting in a year's time, a year's delay amounts to ending any prospect of the Bill becoming law this year.

One of the reasons the Government put forward for delaying the Bill was that it needed to publish research commissioned by the Department of equality and completed by the UCC pregnancy loss research group last October. Today, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, confirmed to me that the report would be published this week. Will the Taoiseach reconsider that delaying amendment, given the report is now to be published this week?

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