Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. This is an important day. We are seeing the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 coming through the Seanad. Most people will know my passionate interest in supporting breastfeeding in Ireland, as the Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality and co-convener of a new subcommittee of the Women's Caucus on breastfeeding. As the Minister rightly pointed out, the breastfeeding breaks did not really suit anyone. Few people would go back to work before six months and, as someone who has breastfed beyond two years for both my children, I think this time is appropriate.

If we look at the data, we have a gap in this regard in Ireland. We will be looking to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to put in place some data analysis around how many women are breastfeeding beyond three months, because this is where the data stop in Ireland. In some ways, it is a little unfortunate that we do not have these data before we have this legislation. This does not mean, however, that we should not put this legislation in place. I would love to see people, as workers and carers, feeling supported in every way they can be to ensure their breastfeeding journey is as long as they want it to be. I think people feel pressured now in this regard to give up breastfeeding because of the lack of flexibility in workplaces. This is through no fault of workplaces but because there is no statutory instrument that will ensure all businesses are treated equally and are on an equal footing.

The other important aspect of this legislation, as has been mentioned, concerns paid leave for domestic violence. Ireland is the first country in the EU to put in place this kind of legislation. This goes beyond the programme for Government. It shows the commitment of the Government and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to ensuring every possible avenue to support those experiencing domestic violence is pursued. We know this is a massive problem in Ireland. I refer to a meeting last week of the joint policing committee in Galway. This area has a particularly high incidence of domestic violence compared with the rest of the country. Some people will say more people are coming forward. This still does not change the fact that they are coming forward and that they are being abused in their own homes.

The Garda has now said it is taking an arrest-first approach to domestic violence, which is correct. Not only is this an assault, like any other, and a crime, but it also means people are living in constant fear in their homes. Children in those homes also live in constant fear and the experience impacts on them for their entire lives. Domestic violence impacts on entire generations in our society. We have a problem here and it must be addressed. This is an important part in doing that. I refer to there being paid leave to allow people to go somewhere safe and, crucially, that it will not be necessary to provide any documentary evidence under this legislation. It should not be a burden on the people who are the victims and being abused in respect of it being necessary to show evidence to employers when they may not want to. People have a right to privacy.

The other important part to speak about in the context of this legislation is on the remote working aspect. This provision is being incorporated into this Bill. All the recommendations from the pre-legislative scrutiny of this legislation are being incorporated into this legislation concerning remote and flexible working. Again, this shows a deep commitment to having the very best legislation when it comes to supporting people in their workplaces. We talk about the equal care that must be given by genders, but we know the majority of care is provided by women. When it comes to remote and flexible working, then, it is predominantly going to be women who will benefit from this initially. Over time, I hope this will change. The complementary aspect here is the provision to legislate for parental leave of up to seven weeks. The Minister has also put this into place. There have been many suggestions regarding how flexible work will operate to ensure there will be balance. I refer to ensuring that small companies, in particular, will be protected. The very fact that all these suggestions have been taken on board and incorporated into this Bill shows this measure will work.

From the Green Party's perspective, not only is this referred to in the programme for Government and fulfilling many of the negotiated commitments in that regard, but it has also long been a policy of our party to support breastfeeding, flexible working and care and this is exactly what this Bill is doing. I therefore thank the Minister.