Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I seek a date from the Leader for the resumption of the Committee Stage debate on the Employment Equality (Amendment) Bill. This is the Bill that I, together with the Labour Party Senators, introduced as a Private Member's Bill on 13 March 2013 to amend section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act to ensure one no longer has the potential to discriminate in schools against teachers because of their sexuality or marital status. There is great support for the principle of this Bill from all sides of the House. The Committee Stage debate began earlier this year, in April, and it is due to resume once Government amendments have been prepared. I hope the Leader and I can work to ensure that Committee Stage will resume and that this Bill will pass through the House before the end of this session in December.

I also ask the Leader for a debate on the national dementia strategy. I was glad to join with members of The Alzheimer Society of Ireland outside Leinster House earlier today and I commend them on their work. In particular, they seek to highlight the need to ensure the proper roll-out of a national dementia strategy and I ask the Leader for a debate on this issue in early course. Finally, I commend the Start Strong organisation on its event last Thursday that I attended and at which the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, spoke. I also wish to state how glad I am that she has made a commitment to making some change in the law to ensure better provision of parental leave and paternity leave in particular. Senator White has been hugely active on this issue and has introduced Private Members' legislation in this regard and like the section 37 amendment, I hope there also can be cross-party support for this initiative.