Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for a period of paid leave in order to enable employees to participate in health screening programmes; for that purpose to amend the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997; to extend the protection against unfair dismissals conferred by the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015; to provide for the consequential amendment of certain other Acts; and to provide for related matters.

I thank Edel O'Shea, a constituent of mine, who worked with me on the Bill, and the Irish Cancer Society, which, as ever, is fantastic in providing data and detail on all things related to cancer services, cancer treatment and cancer screening in this country.

The Bill is simple. It would stop workers having to take annual leave for hospital appointments for national screening programmes. There are four national screening programmes: BreastCheck, CervicalCheck, BowelScreen and Diabetic RetinaScreen. BowelScreen is a home check so the practicalities of this Bill would not apply to it, but it would apply to the other three.

This is not to say that we are failing in terms of take-up. BreastCheck, for example, exceeds the 70% take-up, which is the standard for screening programmes. However, more can always be done. A very important piece of research was conducted for the HSE by Sophie Mulcahy Symmons at the end of 2023 on the take-up of national screening programmes. It indicated, among other things, that people in lower socioeconomic groups are less likely to take up a national screening programme appointment. The majority of people in lower socioeconomic groups are likely to be in vulnerable, insecure or low-paid employment. We know that those types of employment come with fewer safeguards, entitlements and protections. The take-up of trade union membership is also lower in these groups.

We call on the Government to introduce this Bill. I look forward to working with our current health spokesperson, Deputy Sherlock, who is sitting next to me, and our workers' rights spokesperson, Senator Cosgrove. I wrote this Bill at the end of the last Dáil term but I did not get a chance to introduce it when I was health spokesperson and chair of the Oireachtas cross-party group on cancer.

We believe this would be an easy win for the Government. We will work with the Minister for Health and the Minister for enterprise in order to get this through. The Irish Cancer Society estimates that approximately 40,000 people get cancer in Ireland each year and approximately 30% of all deaths per year are from cancer. We know through our own history with screening programmes and, unfortunately, the scandals that have brought screening programmes to the fore of people's minds, that the earlier people get checked, the greater their chance of survival. We are now in a situation where we have increasing trust in our screening programmes - trust that has been hard won after the scandals that have occurred, in particular in regard to CervicalCheck. However, we need to progress more. We must do everything we can to reduce every barrier in people's way to ensure that they can take up national screening programmes.

Some screening checks involve a geographic distance. For those of us in Dublin, the distance can be quite short and we may only need to take a morning off work. Some people who live in more remote parts of the country will need to take a day off work in order to take part in a screening programme. This is an investment for each employer to ensure that their employees are getting checked through national programmes as early as possible. If there is an anomaly or, God forbid, they do have cancer, it can be caught early and treated early. The earlier the treatment, the less invasive it is and the healthier people can remain, which means they can remain in work longer and be able to engage in every other part of their lives. We believe that makes sense. It is something that would not have too much of a cost impact on employers or on the Exchequer. We also believe that, morally, it is the right thing to do. It sends the right message as a health policy - that we as a State will do everything in our power to support people to take part in national screening programmes. We commend this Bill to the House.

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