Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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589. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when his Department will publish a general scheme of a domestic violence Bill to provide for paid leave relating to domestic violence as referenced in the Programme for Government. [11477/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Programme for Government contains a commitment to undertake an investigation into the provision of paid leave and social welfare supports for victims. The Government agreed on 8 December 2020 to examine the feasibility of establishing a statutory entitlement to paid domestic violence leave and to provide a report within six months, with legislative proposals to follow within 4 months.

Consistent with this timeline, the development of a scheme of domestic violence leave is currently being scoped which will include the international models and the identification of best practice. Consultations with service providers and victims’ representative groups have begun through the monitoring committee of the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence on how a scheme of paid leave should operate to address the needs of victims most effectively. Consultations are also being undertaken with employer groups and with trade unions.