Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of Sinn Féin I welcome the Minister to the House and commend him on the work in bringing this Bill forward. I also want to acknowledge the work of the Irish Cancer Society and the Leave Our Leave campaign which it ran. As the Minister has said himself, I am particularly mindful of Erica Tierney, Emma McGuinness and Mary Canavan who selflessly shared their experiences of receiving a cancer diagnosis during their pregnancies and being compelled to begin their maternity leave while also going through cancer treatment. They are all very welcome here to this House today. This legislation is indeed a recognition of their work and of the campaign's endeavours to ensure that no women will again endure what those women had to go through. I welcome the proposal of the Minister around the expansion of the proposal beyond cancer to all serious illnesses also. The impact this Bill will have for mothers, children and their families is immense and cannot be overstated.

I reiterate the concerns expressed by Senator Sherlock. We have concerns that the Bill falls short in recognising the many complex mental health disorders and matters which can arise during pregnancy and birth. In particular, I have concerns about the stipulations surrounding inpatient care. It is my understanding that the Bill only relates to very serious mental health illnesses which require hospitalisation, which was touched upon by Senator Sherlock. That seems to me to be contrary to best practice. Now we are encouraging people to get support within their communities and to use community healthcare where possible. The Bill seems to fail to give consideration to the full range of mental health illness that does not result in a person being hospitalised but nonetheless causes significant challenges and difficulties to a mother trying to bond with her child. Perhaps, the Minister might clarify that issue; I wanted to take the opportunity to mention it.