Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the introduction of domestic violence leave in this legislation. It is very important. I ask the Minister to consider amendments Nos. 10 and 11, because they are absolutely worthy of consideration and inclusion in the Bill. As for the criteria when the Minister is determining what the rate of pay should be by regulation, this is a copy-and-paste job from the workers' rights legislation we have. The sectoral employment orders, the national minimum wage and sick pay are the criteria. I know the percentage rate of pay is not specified here but we know from sick pay that the rate is 70%. It is worth highlighting it will be less than 70% if the board and lodgings are included. Let us think about that for a moment. If a person who is experiencing domestic violence wishes to seek domestic violence leave and is already living at his or her workplace or availing of bed and board and lodgings, he or she will receive less than the percentage the Minister will specify. A considerable issue here is putting ourselves into the shoes of somebody who will put himself or herself forward to take this leave. The real question is as to whether a person will shy away from taking the leave if he or she has to think twice about it.

We really want this leave to work. We wish to see that those who need to take this leave will take it up. However, if they will be out of pocket and there will be issues about payroll and having to run through a different rate of pay relative to everybody else, people will shy away from saying they need to take this leave. The appeal from the three of us here this evening and I am sure from others, is for the Minister to really consider the criteria being set down. The criteria seem to consider everybody else other than the person, especially in using the state of the economy generally or the impact on the domestic economy. Such a consideration seems heartless and unrelated to the leave in question. I urge the Minister to tighten up the criteria and to send a signal that it will not be the 70% rate and should be the full rate, because it would set out a very important message. Countries such as New Zealand, Italy and others have set domestic violence leave at a full rate of pay. I would love to see our country follow suit.