Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in saying I am very happy to see Committee Stage of this Bill being taken. I hope we will see Report Stage being taken very soon. This is an issue that has been pressed for a long time and I commend all of those in civil society who pushed for it. I recall it being one of the issues we fought for when I was on the National Women's Council.

I thank Deputies Róisín and Catherine Murphy for bringing the Bill to the Dáil. I thank Labour Party and the Technical Group for providing time for this debate here today and indeed Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and others who support. Everybody who knows the decisions and choices families have to make and how important it is for them to be able to plan their lives has come to a point of support for this Bill. I hope the Government will join with us in recognising the importance of it.

Ireland has one of the higher figures in terms of women dropping out of the workforce at a certain point. It has been an outlier. It is an issue that was raised in the country-specific recommendations Ireland got from Europe because it is one of the problems. The decision to drop out of the workforce is often made under pressure. Somebody may have studied and worked for what they are passionate about but the decision to leave is made under pressure because key crunch times come along in families' lives when they cannot achieve the balance.

I was very disappointed to see some business lobbyists coming in with concerns around this Bill and talking about the loss of skills at short notice. I refer to the loss of skills to us as a society when we have women predominantly dropping out of the workforce after years of training and acquiring a level of knowledge knowing, as described in letters similar to those outlined by Senator Norris, that it will be very difficult for them to get back on the ladder and come back in at that senior level. That is a fundamental problem and it is one we can cut off at the roots.

This Bill is long overdue and very necessary. I support the amendments. I would note two areas where we will need to strengthen the Bill.The Bill is modest as it deals with unpaid leave but we will have to look at paid leave because people have lives. We need to plan for integrated lives, and rather than the quarterly return of any one company, we need to look at the big picture of a sustainable economy and society. Employers need to plan for parts of their workforce, be they men or women, taking leave at different times for different reasons and this leave will need to be paid.

It is important that this goes to age 12 because, like Senator Humphreys said, children have transition points in their lives and parents want to be able to support them. In the longer term, we need to look at 18 as the age. We have a blind spot and research of the Vincentian Partnership shows the difficulties people have, particularly those who are parenting alone. I have raised the issue of supports for those parenting alone with the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty. Once a child hits 14 the balancing job which a parent is doing disappears. I have called for jobseeker transitional payments until a child is aged 18, rather than having a parent go onto jobseeker's allowance, in order to recognise the balance of work and care which parents are trying to achieve. There will be key points at 15, 14 and 16 when two or three extra days for a parent can make a crucial difference. That is where we are going, down the line, but this is a huge and positive step forward for now. I am glad we are all supporting it.

A new EU work-life balance communiqué has come out and a new position has been agreed by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission which is driving us to look at work-life balance. This will probably become a directive in the near future so it is important that Ireland gets ahead and can be one of its champions within Europe. It is important that flexible working arrangements and rights to carer's leave are carried forward. I commend both amendments, which I believe strengthen the Bill, and I commend Senator Bacik and others on giving their time to bring the Bill forward.