Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Before speaking on Senator White's amendment I would like to advise the House that it is intended to propose a Government amendment on Report Stage to section 2 of the Bill at page 4, line 3. An unintentional anomaly has just come to light in the case of the upper age limit for adopted children and this needs to be corrected.

As regards Senator White's amendment, section 2(2)(c) of the Bill implements the commitment made in Sustaining Progress and the recommendation of the parental leave working group to increase the age limit to 16 years in the case of a child with a disability. The working group's recommendation is linked to the arrangements in place in respect of domiciliary care allowance. The latter is a monthly allowance paid to parents — it is administered by the health service — in respect of certain disabled children up until their sixteenth birthdays. The increase will facilitate working parents of children with disability who may need greater flexibility to take time off work for a longer period of their child's life.

While I thank Senator White for tabling the amendment, which has some merit, I cannot accept it as it goes beyond the consensus reached by the social partners in the context of Sustaining Progress and the partnership agreement. It would be unfair for the Government to unilaterally decide to vary one element of a package of agreed mechanisms and amendments which were negotiated in good faith and which involved a degree of compromise on all sides. It would not be acceptable for one party to a multi-party agreement to subsequently alter an agreed commitment reached after negotiation. To do this would damage the social partnership process to the detriment of making further progress in future partnership negotiations. However, I am prepared to request IBEC and ICTU to consider this proposal and to be guided by their findings.

There are many aspects of the legislation I would like to change. Senator O'Toole was one of the architects of social partnership, which has served the country well. I accept that it often inhibits the Oireachtas in terms of making changes which certain Senators or Deputies might wish to make. Ireland is the envy of Europe because responsible union leaders here have helped, often in difficult circumstances, bring about great change for their members. Employers have also been prepared to compromise. Consequently, it is extremely important that we should not alter anything agreed in prolonged negotiations without referring back to the bodies concerned and that is what I propose to do.