Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the debate on the Bill, and I offer my support it. I wish to touch on the point Senator Hoey finished on regarding stigma. As public representatives, we talk to people who are probably open enough to talk about it and do not suffer from a need to hide anything, or at least they do not any more, while they might have had at the time. There are so many people in this country, even family members, who do not talk to each other about it. There are probably people in this room who have a family member who went through this experience who have not told them about it. The stigma is so ingrained over years and years of not talking about such issues.

I hope the Bill will deal with many issues. It is not perfect yet, and we need to debate it and wait for research from the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth but it recognises what a traumatic experience this is for couples. It will also have a knock-on effect in changing the stigma around this very sensitive issue.

The Leader touched on a very good point, which is that the Constitution in this country is founded on supporting families. As a whole, we are quite good at that. In recent years there has been much support for families, early childhood and extended paternity leave. Senator Doherty addressed such issues during her tenure in the Department of Social Protection. Parental leave increased from two weeks to five weeks and now to seven weeks, which is significant and helpful. There are also free GP services for children. This and previous Governments have introduced a range of initiatives to support the family structure and young children.

It seems strange to me that we can support someone who loses a child after 26 weeks and give them the space to grieve and recover from it, but we do not do it before 26 weeks or certainly not to the same extent. I have one child and we were lucky that everything went okay when it was born but if something had gone wrong at 23 weeks or 27 weeks, my grief and sense of loss would be no different. The Government must recognise the loss, grievance and pain couples go through. Twenty four weeks is a long time for a couple to expect a baby and then for it not to happen. The grieving process takes time. The Government must support people in the process. With the contribution of everyone through amendments, the Bill will help the process.

A number of speakers touched on IVF. I brought this up before Christmas when I raised a Commencement matter on it. If memory serves me right, Senator Sherlock referred to the fact that Ireland and Lithuania are the only two countries that do not provide a service for people in this state. That is wholly unacceptable. It is even more unacceptable because we promised people we would do it. The commitment was made three or four years ago. We only need to look across the water where two rounds of IVF treatment are provided free of charge by the state. We must improve the supports provided to couples in that regard. I have spoken to a number of people about the experience, and it is a very difficult period for them. In the first case, it is very difficult for people to accept it, but the sense I get is that people who go through it feel they are on their own and they do not have the backing of the State. Senator Ardagh explained very well her own experience of it.

I look forward to the contribution of the Minister of State. On the whole, people recognise the urgency and need for this legislation. It will improve an awful lot of things, not only just give people an opportunity to grieve and to get over the devastation of it but also to change society. We should become more open and more willing to talk about such difficulties to help people who experience them in the future.