Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Bill and I commend Senators Bacik and Sherlock on bringing it forward. I commend my colleague, Senator Mary Seery Kearney, on speaking of her experience.

It is sad it has taken until 2021 for this Bill to be brought forward. If the Bill is enacted, it will give an entitlement for up to 20 days of paid leave for women experiencing the trauma of early miscarriage and up to ten days of paid leave for employees accessing other reproductive health treatments, such as IVF. I fully support this important legislation and I hope it will progress through both Houses. The Bill will give practical support to workers and help to open up a national conversation around reproductive health and fertility in this country. Conversations such as these help to destigmatise the isolating and traumatic reproductive health challenges lived by so many people in this country every day.

Many people return to work immediately and this is not right. Any parent knows the road to parenthood is sometimes not easy. However, for some couples it is devastating. Approximately 14,000 women in Ireland suffer a miscarriage every year; therefore, more than one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage. Between one in four and one in six couples or individuals in Ireland encounters difficulty conceiving. The success rate for patients at a given IVF clinic in Ireland is approximately 25% for patients aged over 40, and the majority of clinics in Ireland list IVF at a cost of between €4,500 and €5,000 per cycle.

While a number of maternity hospitals have set up bereavement specialist teams to support parents, it is not enough. Currently, too many people, women in particular, suffer in silence because they do not believe the support is there for them. These personal struggles have been carried out in silence, with many workers taking annual leave to access reproductive health care or after the tragedy of an early miscarriage. This Bill is important to show that there will be support at what is a very difficult time for parents, women in particular. I fully support the Bill and I look forward to seeing it pass through both Houses and being enacted in the near future.