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

My understanding is that early pregnancy loss and fertility treatments can be covered under the statutory sick pay scheme, which is new. It just requires a doctor's cert to that effect. However, I appreciate and am sympathetic to the calls for dedicated leave for the reasons outlined. Some employers offer it on a voluntary basis. To pick up on what many Deputies said earlier about rising costs and the rising difficulties businesses are having, the Government has introduced a lot of additional leave, including an extra public holiday, statutory sick pay, extended parental leave and domestic violence leave. Employers are saying to us, and it is not unreasonable for them to do so, that this is a significant amount of leave. They have to cover the cost of that and the replacement member of staff. We need to do the research and look at this in the round. I stand over the reforms made by the Government, including increasing the living wage, bringing in extra forms of leave and all of those things, but we have to make sure it does not impact negatively on employment.

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