Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill from the Labour Party group leader, Senator Bacik, who, I believe, has now introduced and had passed more Private Members' Bills than any other Senator, which is a record to be proud of.

This Bill is fundamentally practical, useful and timely. As we begin to emerge from the strangest of times for the organisation of working time for the entire country under Covid-19 restrictions, it is prime time to discuss how we structure our working lives, which must interact in a flexible and, ultimately, understanding way with our lives. For women, that is a particularly unique intersection because our bodies experience a very wide range of reproductive experiences from periods to pregnancy, endometriosis, miscarriage, abortion, perimenopause and full-blown menopause. Over the course of our lives, we will take long-term medication to manage both our reproductive cycle and the hormonal and pain management that comes with that. It is a real hoot. An issue not always acknowledged enough in our discussions about women in work is the physical pain of an internal organ shed its internal wall once a month. It is pretty sore and quite inconvenient. The physical pain and fatigue associated with every one of the events I have mentioned are normal and are expected to be borne by women while working, all the while smiling, mothering, managing and scheduling and doing up to 70% of the domestic work in the family home. In short, it is not easy being a working woman, or a working trans woman. To be frank, for those with a uterus working is not easy.

This legislation, posed by Senator Bacik, is about ensuring dignity, care and compassion are exercised in respect of those who many find themselves in need of time off from work to manage the physical, psychological and emotional impact of miscarriage or IVF. At this moment, I am thinking of some of my young friends who for various reasons have had to have a hysterectomy, some of them in their early 20s. They, too, have faced a number of reproductive complications and have had to leave this country in order to get the life-saving or life-changing surgery they needed.While the Bill is specifically about reproductive leave, I want to flag that we should not forget that reproductive complication goes a bit further than we have been talking most commonly about today. Let us remind ourselves that the issue under discussion is far more common than we think, based on how little we talk or are encouraged to talk about this. The statistics have been outlined. For example, one in four pregnancies will end in miscarriage and one in five couples will experience fertility issues. I am aware we are rattling off the statistics but many people, some in this room, have lived experience of these issues. I hope the proposed legislation gives some of them comfort and optimism that we are going to go in the right direction in this country in dealing with this issue.

The vast majority of people will be in work while they experience these issues, so it almost comical that, in 2021, we do not have standard leave applicable for 50% of working people when they need it in respect of pregnancy loss or accessing fertility treatments. We also do not have standard work practice polices in most places for periods, menopause or endometriosis. These are a normal part of women’s lives that cost us money, time and emotional and physical pain, but are simply not talked about in the place were we may spend more hours a week than we do with our family or in our own homes. These are all places where this goes unspoken about.

This legislation not only addresses the very practical provision of leave for those who need it, but it opens up spaces, workplaces and radio studios to this conversation that we have all been avoiding for a long time, which is that women's reproductive lives are simply not the same as men’s. Our bodies have this tedious reproductive and fertility system ticking away and we have to manage that and factor it into our everyday lives, mostly with little or no support. I am acutely aware of Senator Seery Kearney’s point that not everyone wants to be able to discuss this and that there may be people listening today, or even in this room, for whom this is a deeply personal conversation. As I said, I hope that whatever way people find to deal with these things, they will take some comfort from the fact legislation is being brought forward that will make things better for other people coming after them, and that we are going to do the right thing.

The loss of a pregnancy is an incredibly difficult thing to go through. I have failed to this point to mention that it is not only difficult for those who experience pregnancy loss, but also for their partners. There are also extraordinary added complications for a trans person who experiences pregnancy loss or fertility issues. In 2021, it is time to have these difficult conversations and recognise that, very often, the people we walk past in the corridor or share an office cubicle with, although we have not been sharing an office much in the past year, may be silently suffering and our current work practices are compounding their anguish. Let us get this Bill passed.

As has been said, his Bill is about workers’ rights and, as a trade unionist, I am proud once again to be part of a party in the Seanad that is consistently putting forward legislation on workers’ rights. I thank the many people who have reached out to me with their deeply personal stories. Everyone in this Chamber has probably had somebody reach out to them in advance of this debate. I thank those who have shared today, particularly Senator Mary Seery Kearney for her honesty and her frankness. Again, I commend my colleague, friend and comrade, Senator Ivana Bacik, on once again leading the legislative charge and bringing forward this timely, necessary and important legislation.