Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators for their contributions to the debate this afternoon and for their strong welcome for the key principles behind this Bill. I believe this is very important legislation. I am conscious of the real impact it will have on the lives of individuals at some very significant moments in their lives. There is widespread support for the proposals to allow seriously ill women to pause their maternity leave. I am determined to bring this proposal through enactment. I am very pleased that under this legislation, female Members of the Oireachtas will now have a statutory right to maternity leave. As a number of Senators have said, this is long overdue. It is an important equality provision and sends a very clear message that having a family is not a barrier to pursuing a career in public life.

I will now respond to some of the points made during the discussion. I note to Senator Seery Kearney that I will respond to the issue of surrogacy on Committee Stage. In regard to pre-legislative scrutiny, I spoke at length at the Oireachtas joint committee on the reasons for the NDA element coming as a Committee Stage amendment in the Dáil, and that was solely because of the shortened time period we have to get this legislation passed and make sure that important legislation has included all three elements, namely, the NDA element, the leave our leave element and the maternity leave for Oireachtas Members element. I hope to see the draft text of that amendment by the end of this week. As I said at the Oireachtas joint committee, I will engage with Senator Ruane in terms of ensuring it meets the requirements of the legislation she has passed through the Seanad already.

It is important to put on record, because everyone else places things on record, the reason I did not oppose the Senator's legislation at any Stage when it went through this House, the reason I commissioned research in my own Department on the issue of NDAs and the reason I agreed to bring this through, even if it is a little bit truncated, is because I and the Government also share her concern about the use of NDAs. We share an acknowledgement of their impact on victims of sexual harassment and victims of bullying and we believe that her proposal is a correct one. I want to put that on the floor and I genuinely believe that next week, there will be satisfaction when those amendments are seen.

As for the comments from IBEC, I take on board the concerns Senator Sherlock raised in terms of the definition of mental illness vis-á-vis the definition of serious illness, but my priority was to ensure that mental illness was considered within the ground of serious illness. We all know for too long mental illness has just been put to the side and was not ever properly considered within the course of serious illness. I did not want that to be the case with this particular legislation. I have not gone in depth through the concerns that have been raised but I am certainly happy to talk to officials about it and see their view and possibly take the views of the Mental Health Commission and others. Importantly, in terms of date and timeline for commencement, the legislation will commence immediately on enactment. We actually have brought a motion for early signature as well to progress this. It is our intention to see this legislation enacted as soon as it is passed, again recognising we are operating in a truncated period.

Again, I thank all Senators for their contributions. I should have recognised earlier on, the women's caucus and the work it did on it. It was centrally important in terms of shaping the proposals around maternity leave for Oireachtas Members. My Department has met the Senator on a number of occasions. We have done a number of surveys and got some really good, practical experience of Oireachtas Members, some of whom who have given birth while they have been serving and some who have not as yet, and who spoke about the pressures and how elements of this job are complicated by that. Central in all of that was that a clear entitlement to leave is necessary. It relates to this sector and indeed there are many such areas, particularly areas in self-employment. I have colleagues in the Bar who I know do not take the 26 weeks because there is that pressure whereby they have to be there and have to be seen. Consequently, it is important for our colleagues to be able to state that these 26 weeks are legally reserved for them as TDs or as Senators, just as much as everyone else. It is a really important signal in a job that we all know is so consuming of all our lives that this time is legally reserved. That is a really important statement and one that I am pleased to be able to advance. I thank colleagues for their comments and contributions.