Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in today. Deputy O'Gorman is very busy with an awful lot on his plate these days. We very much appreciate the time that the Minister gives us here, but also the amount of work that he is doing to put in place everything that is needed for us throughout the pandemic and for the future. It came to light during the pandemic that people were not able to spend quality time with their young babies, but to be able to put this into place for the future is hugely beneficial.

I would like to start by talking about this burden of childcare that people talk about. I feel strongly that childcare is not a burden. Childcare is the care of children, and children are at the heart and the centre of all of this. The burden is actually a burden that society places on us as parents in trying to be with our children. A lot of the reason that I am here in the Seanad, I suppose, and on the labour panel, is because of unpaid caring work that many people do. Whether one is working outside or inside the home, it is very much unrecognised.

The Minister mentioned about the work-life balance directive. This is about adults' work-life balance, but where is the time that children spend with either their adoptive parents or their birth parents? That has to be at the centre now when we are talking about anything to do with childcare. Whether it is in crèches, with childminders or with parents, it is not only about the rights of workers, which is us as the childcare providers. It is also about the rights of the people being cared for to have an unhurried life. I refer to a life where we are not running to stand still, where we are not dropping children first thing in the morning or, in many cases here, for several days and coming back to them, but where we are looking at ways to put in place this Bill, which is hugely important in changing the entitlement to parent's leave and benefit from two weeks to five weeks, and that both parents would be given this where there are two parents or adoptive parents. That anomaly that is being addressed regarding adoptive parents is hugely important.

One issue that people may look at and see may be missing concerns domestic violence leave.The Minister has spoken in the House previously on this issue and I would like him to say a word at the end on what he intends to do. Domestic violence impacts on a lot of parents particularly, and it is appropriate to bring it up now.

I will take this opportunity to say I am supportive of the Labour Party's reproductive leave Bill and I hope the Government will support it. It goes to the heart of this issue. There are many reasons in their reproductive lives that people may need to take leave. We need to recognise this reproductive part of ourselves and it is being recognised by the Bill.

I know I am going slightly off the Bill itself but Article 41.2° of the Constitution is important. It is one of the reasons I got involved in politics. I came before the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality before I was ever involved in the Green Party. Perhaps I was involved in the Green Party but I was not running for office. In the report produced at the time the recommendation was not to remove Article 41.2° but to look at maintaining a right to care in the Constitution that is shared. This is a right and an obligation that is shared throughout society and the Minister is playing his part as the Minister with responsibility for children. All of us in our communities need to be supported and this means we need the economic means to be able to provide that care.

Some of the tax credits do not go anywhere near where they should to help people stay in the home if that is what they want to do. I know the Minister knows this. This needs to be addressed. The Bill speaks about family leave when working but there are those who are at home and who find it incredibly difficult economically to keep going. I would love to have more conversations about what we can do on this but for a start if we remove something from the Constitution that recognises this care we would be doing a disservice to those who have cared for a very long time and the people who are cared for.