Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I risk being slightly repetitive. As Women's Aid noted, during the Second Stage debate in the Seanad, the Minister stated the Government is looking at parity of pay for domestic violence leave with sick pay. As my Labour Party colleague just pointed out, the proposal is modelled on the Sick Leave Act 2022 among others and is in line with the proposal by the Minister's Department. The report on domestic violence leave recommended that the daily payment from the employer be 70% of daily salary rate capped at €110 per day and that a minimum rate entitlement should also be set. Sinn Féin disagrees with that on a number of grounds, including financial hardship. Women experiencing domestic abuse and coercive control are often subjected to financial abuse, frequently do not have access to savings or family assets and have to survive on very tight budgets. Losing 30% of their daily salary if taking the leave may be very difficult for them, create real hardships for women and children and play against them taking domestic leave.

Domestic violence leave may be taken by women who are in the process of questioning the relationship or leaving the abuser. The need for counselling, court and relocation are some of the reasons for taking domestic violence leave. Separation is not only a very dangerous time but also one when women face additional and significant expenses such as legal expenses and finding alternative accommodation. Therefore, a decrease in income would be highly problematic.

Safety risks are another issue. If a woman's income is monitored or appropriated by her abuser or both, a change in her normal salary may alert the abuser. That point has been mentioned already. On privacy, unfortunately, there is still considerable stigma attached to domestic abuse and fear of the abuse becoming common knowledge in the workplace may prevent a survivor from accessing domestic violence leave. If the normal salary is paid, this would minimise domestic violence leave being identified in payslips and payrolls, while employers could still keep track of it separately. We disagree with the proposal and strongly believe that domestic violence leave should be paid in full at the normal rate of pay. I raise these issues in order to bring an amendment on Report Stage if necessary.