Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here, in the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman's place, today.

Any of us who are fortunate to have had babies know the immense value of maternity leave. It is a way of society saying to women to take time with their newborn babies.

Approximately 60 women in this country each year are diagnosed with cancer during their pregnancy and, of course, their maternity leave is taken up, not solely with the care of their baby but with the life-saving treatment for themselves. There is a small number, probably running to only a few hundred of other women, who go through serious illness during those weeks and months postpartum.The reality is that they forfeit their maternity leave when they become sick. This situation has been raised for a year and a half by the Irish Cancer Society through its Leave our Leave campaign. It highlights that, in effect, there has been a doubling down of the trauma of not only being diagnosed with cancer and having to go through treatment but then also losing their precious maternity leave after their treatment. There is an irony here because men can defer their paternity leave if they are sick. Any worker who takes holidays is able to defer their holidays if they become sick yet women who become seriously ill in the middle of their maternity leave cannot get their maternity leave back once they get better.

I want to bring the Minister of State back to the Green Party annual convention last October. I am sure he was there. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, gave a very explicit commitment that he would legislate accordingly. He said that he looks forward this year to bringing forward legislative proposals with regard to delivering on the Leave our Leave and amending the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 to ensure that women who are seriously ill during their maternity leave can retain their maternity leave and that it is not forfeited. He committed to doing it before Christmas. That is what he told reporters at the annual convention in Cork. We are now four months on and we have not seen sight nor sound of those legislative proposals.

I appreciate that the Minister has had a very busy first two months of this year but that is no good to the women who were given a very clear-cut commitment last October and who six months on are very much waiting for something from him. We need to see an amendment to section 14A of the Act to ensure that maternity leave is not forfeited when women become seriously ill. We need to hear a clear date when the heads of the Bill will be published and when it will be brought to both this House and the Dáil. We also need a clear date for when the legislation will be commenced. To be frank, this should be very straightforward. This is not a large piece of legislation. There is a huge amount of goodwill and support for such a legislative change. It is just about getting on with it at this stage. Women, the Irish Cancer Society, and all those who know the value of maternity leave, in particular those who find themselves seriously ill during maternity leave, need to hear concrete commitments from the Minister of State here today in this Chamber as to what the Green Party in government is going to do to make good on what was said last October.