Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am deeply disappointed by the response. We believe the Organisation of Working Time Act is the correct legislative mechanism for this. What makes this different from carer's leave, maternity leave or paternity leave is that this is a short period of leave of no more than a day, sometimes a morning. This is not extended leave. This is not leave for weeks or months. The Minister of State feels differently. That is very disappointing.

We all agree with the Minister of State "increasing access into the national screening service can be done more sustainably". We have acknowledged the need for an improvement in this regard. Everyone is supportive of that across the House in terms of access to these programmes. We define within this legislation that it is the HSE national screening programmes. There are four of them. They are tightly defined. It is an evidence-based approach. I referred to the Sophie Mulcahy Symmons research which we are basing this on.

We are talking about workers in retail, service workers and workers in insecure low-paid employment. This legislation is not for self-employed people. It is not for retired people. It is for workers in low-paid and insecure employment. If it were applied, it would have a marginal to low impact, but it would have an impact. It would increase the number of people availing of screening. Through word of mouth, it would create a culture of doing so among workers where there is a low density of trade union representation. This word of mouth element would ensure workers know their entitlements in terms of being able to take a few hours off to take part in these screening programmes.

I am aghast that the Government is opposing this Bill on Second Stage and not allowing it to go through for further discussion. There is a constituency out there listening to the debate on this Bill about this potential entitlement who will be disappointed and will make that known to their local Government representatives. I am disappointed the Minister of State did not respond to Deputy Sheehan's question about whether it could be done through the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. I thank Deputies Guirke and Sheehan for contributing to this debate. I am disappointed with the Government's response to this. While it is not unexpected for the Government to oppose Opposition legislation, I am surprised - and not just because it is my legislation - that the Government is opposing this Bill.

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