Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I commend the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on bringing forward this legislation into these sittings of the Oireachtas. It may be recalled that on 20 March this year, I introduced the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2024. It sought, in effect, to do exactly the same as the Minister is seeking to do in this legislation. Obviously, I am extremely supportive of this legislation. I welcome that the Government and the Minister made the decision to bring forward such legislation. I am not in any way proprietorial in respect of my own Bill and I welcome the expertise the Minister and his officials have put into drafting what can be difficult, technical legislation.

I drafted and introduced the Bill in March of this year because of the harrowing and traumatic stories I heard from women who were diagnosed with cancer while pregnant or immediately after their child was born. It is appropriate in my Bill, and indeed the Minister's Bill, that the illnesses covered by this legislation are not simply limited to cancer; they extend to all forms of serious illness. It has to be said that it was the women who came with stories of being diagnosed with cancer who had the effect of catalysing the Oireachtas into action. I also commend my party colleague, Senator Catherine Ardagh, who organised a very moving meeting in the Houses of the Oireachtas at which a number of women told their stories of what happened to them.

The provenance of this Bill is very instructive and useful for Members of the Oireachtas. Sometimes we are unaware of where the gaps or inadequacies in our legislation are. In fairness to Members, we will not know about the inadequacies or gaps unless people come forward and tell how their personal experiences have been affected by the absence of laws governing their situation. That is why it is so important we have societies such as the Irish Cancer Society and women who probably do not want to do so but have made the brave decision to go public to inform us about the very difficult circumstances they found themselves in.

I do not think there could be a more traumatic circumstance for a woman who has recently given birth to a child than to be told she has been diagnosed with cancer or another serious illness. If you mention this to members of the public they see immediately the gross unfairness in the fact that a woman who is entitled to enjoy maternity leave in effect loses the whole benefit of that maternity leave because it has been eaten up as a result of a sickness she is experiencing and in respect of which she is perfectly entitled to have sick leave from work. That is an area in which there was a gap in the law and I welcome the fact it has been resolved.

When I introduced my Bill in March the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, was coming near the end of his term in office. At the time, I commended him on having played a significant role in bringing forward legislation that provided for paternity leave. That is something we did not have in Ireland prior to the legislation introducing it. One of the discrepancies I pointed out to him, however, was that under the paternity leave legislation enacted by the Houses of the Oireachtas a number of years ago, a man was perfectly entitled to defer or postpone his period of paternity leave to a time that suits him. I indicated to the then Taoiseach that there was an inherent unfairness in the fact that a man could defer or postpone paternity leave but the same benefit did not arise in respect of maternity leave for a woman who is suffering from a serious illness. It may have been an issue that conflicted with the equality provision in the Constitution but I welcome the fact that, as a result of the enactment of this legislation, it is an issue that will not need to be considered by the courts.

I do not know what the statistics are in respect of the number of women each year who are diagnosed with cancer or a serious illness during pregnancy or immediately after pregnancy, but I would be surprised if it was less than 100. I suspect that between 100 and 200 women are affected by this. Now that the law is being enacted and the Oireachtas has given further attention to this issue, we may see that there are more women who will be entitled to avail of this maternity protection benefit.

The Bill the Minister and his officials have drafted and the one I drafted seek to do the same thing, namely, insert into the Maternity Protection Acts a new section 14C. The drafting the Minister has used is very easy to follow. It sets out that there has to be a serious health condition and the definition of that is that it "entails a serious risk to the life or health, including the mental health, of an employee, and ... in order to address the risk, requires necessary medical intervention that is ongoing for a period of time to be carried out in respect of the employee." It is very clear that this Bill is designed to deal with circumstances where there is a serious illness. Employers need not be fearful in respect of this Bill. Any decent employer will see the fairness in permitting a mother to be able to enjoy her maternity leave at a time when she is not undergoing medical treatment for a serious illness.

The other part of the legislation being introduced by the Minister, which was not contained in the Bill I introduced in March, is the extension of maternity leave to female Members of the Oireachtas. That is something I and Fianna Fáil fully support. It probably should have been done much sooner, in a previous Dáil, but it should be supported. We are trying to encourage more people, in particular women, into politics. I do not think it is feasible or possible for us to do that unless we are able to say to young women coming into politics that if they want to have a family, we will facilitate that family by permitting them to take their maternity leave.

I commend the Minister again and support the enactment of the legislation. I hope to see it on the Statute Book promptly.

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