Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I thank Senator Bacik for bringing this Bill before the House tonight and for her contribution.

It is staggering that 14,000 women every year suffer from miscarriage. Everyone knows someone who has gone through it and normally the person is a family member. The only reason we know she is a family member is because if it is not a family member, we do not necessarily talk about it. It could be a mother or sister. Perhaps one of the advantages of this Bill, or one like it, coming through is the opportunity for people to speak out about their experiences. While I touch on that, I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Senator Sherlock. We find the most empowering contributions in the Chamber are normally about personal experiences. I hope the contribution Senator Sherlock made encourages more people to speak up and speak out about their experiences.

There has been much talk and debate in recent weeks since the Parliament of New Zealand passed the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment (No. 2) Bill 2021 in March, providing an entitlement to mothers and their partners of three days of paid leave following a miscarriage or stillbirth. This entitlement is an extension of the existing statutory bereavement leave. New Zealand now provides three days' leave for women and their partners who lose a baby at any stage in pregnancy. Prospective parents will also be eligible if the mother of the baby they were hoping to adopt suffers a miscarriage. This new law mandating three days of paid bereavement leave is distinct from sick leave or maternity leave.

It is important to allow the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, to commission research to examine the context of the provision of the reproductive health leave, including how leave can be best used to support reproductive health needs. The introduction of any additional form of compassionate or family leave would require detailed provisions on the circumstances in which the leave entitlement would arise and may give rise to consequential amendments to existing legislation. It is also necessary to define clearly the circumstances in which pregnancy loss or reproductive health interventions are more appropriately matters for sick leave and medical care. Development of legislation of this nature requires significant policy development across several Departments.

The Bill proposes leave with pay when a miscarriage occurs before eight weeks' gestation. It should be noted that existing entitlements to maternity and paternity leave apply to stillbirth after 24 weeks.

There have been recent reforms for working parents. We have seen an additional three weeks for paid parent's leave to each parent to be taken in the first two years after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. All adopting couples will be able to choose which parent may avail of adoptive leave, including male same-sex couples who were previously precluded due to a legislative anomaly. Parent's leave will be made available to a parent who is not availing of adoptive leave. The extension to the Parent's Leave and Benefits Act 2019, following several recent legislative reforms aimed at enabling working parents to spend more time with their children, was welcome. The other reforms include the extension of unpaid parental leave to 26 weeks for a child under 12 years in 2020, the introduction of two weeks of parent's leave in 2019 and the introduction of two weeks of paternity leave in 2016.

The Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021 removes the presumption that an adoptive mother be the primary caregiver and permits families to choose the best option. It allows greater flexibility to adoptive parents and for the availability of parent's leave to parents not availing of adoptive leave.

This is on the back of a range of measures that have been brought forward while Fine Gael has been in government. In 2011, the Fine Gael-led coalition, along with the Labour Party, established the first Department with responsibility for children, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Following that the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, was established. Free general practitioner care for all children under six years of age was introduced in 2015. In 2016, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, launched the first national maternity strategy. The strategy had four overarching priorities: to improve safety and quality in general and standardise care across all units; to introduce a health and well-being approach to give babies the best start and improve the health of women; to ensure a woman's choice is facilitated to the greatest extent possible; and to improve staffing levels of all facilities in maternity units in communities. A great deal has been done by this Government and previous governments, including when the Labour Party was in government with us.

Something like this or something along this line would add value to what has been introduced previously and would recognise the trauma that 14,000 women and their partners and families go through every year. It is not acceptable that people have to use annual leave in private and not even say why they are taking it. They simply take it and do not talk about it. They do not have the opportunity. They do not have that compassion from the State to be able to take bereavement leave.