Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to facilitate the making of standing orders in relation to certain absences from each House of the Oireachtas, to amend the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) Regulations 2021 and for that purpose to extend the entitlement of members to additional secretarial facilities in certain circumstances, and to provide for related matters.

At the outset, I thank the OPLA for its assistance in putting this Bill together. It took well over two years to get to today, and I have to say its support was excellent, especially during my maternity leave. I was so focused on trying to get this Bill over the line that it continued to work with me during my maternity leave. I thank the OPLA for all of that.

As the election looms, we are going to hear more and more about how to get women involved in politics. Our statutory gender quota was 30% of candidates at the last election but the Chamber we stand in is currently 23.1% female. That is the highest percentage in the history of the State and it is less than a quarter of our Members.

My baby Collins, in the words of our great Ceann Comhairle, was in 2022 the first actual baby in the Chamber. That is over 100 years, 33 Dáil terms, 1,292 Teachtaí Dála, 131 of whom were women. Now that Collins is two years and six months, I was also very delighted to see - as the rest of us were - Senator Rebecca Moynihan's young Margot follow suit. I hope to see more babies in this Chamber going forward.

The Dáil regularly sits past midnight, and we know that the creche does not. I know from my own experience that there was actually no space available for Collins in the creche past December 2022. That had a knock-on effect for me personally, especially in respect of breastfeeding. I am also aware that there are Members of both Houses who have never been able to get a space for their child. These are both subject, obviously, to the demands of this Chamber and the childcare sector, which cannot easily be changed. However, what can and should be changed are the provisions for secretarial assistance. I quote the former TD, Dr. Mary Upton, chair of the forum on a family-friendly and inclusive Parliament, as established by the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl, in March 2023.

Diversity in all its forms is what we aspire to as a national parliament [...] because those with more diverse backgrounds will bring up policy issues traditionally associated with their backgrounds. [...] they will bring their lived experience to all matters of public policy [...] they will notice lacunae, weaknesses or imbalances of approaches and will improve the quality of the policy choices and legislation that will apply to all of us.

I want to take this opportunity to praise our Ceann Comhairle for his emphasis and prioritisation with regard to increasing family-friendly policies in this Dáil Chamber. Many of the Deputies in this Chamber are working parents. It is an admirable and difficult task to balance standing up for your constituents and spending time with your little ones.

The proposed Bill would extend secretarial assistance to Members of either House with children under two. Without discriminating on issues of maternity and paternity, it would extend this assistance to pregnancies that do not result in a living child - a heartbreaking occurrence that occurs in roughly one in 250 births. It codifies supports in primary legislation.

This is not just a women's issue. It is an issue of compassion, courtesy and of diversifying our Parliament to represent all of Ireland, such as the parents for whom work-life balance is a circus act on a sky-high tightrope; those with something they want to bring to the table who are unsure of running for election and leaving their children at home; and those who need a little extra help after working through every parent's worst nightmare.

We sit as Members of the Thirty-third Dáil, the most family-friendly Dáil in history, with five weeks' paid parental leave. As the family-friendly Dáil forum recommended additional secretarial facilities for Members taking paternity leave, it is respectfully submitted that these facilities should be extended to all Members with young children, and Members recovering from the physical and mental effects of pregnancies that do not result in a living child. I hope that this Bill, if unopposed by Government, will send a strong message to our youth in that our Chamber will be inclusive of all circumstances.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Leave Our Leave campaign. I know it has been campaigning for the last two years for the ability to defer maternity leave while undergoing cancer treatment or post partum as well. It is an amendment that is required to legislation and I would like to see it be successful in its campaign sooner rather than later. I also want to acknowledge the recent Bill proposed by the Minister of State, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, in respect of voting legislation for Members. I was restricted, I suppose, in what I could do with this Bill but I hope this is the start of more work to be done.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Is the Bill opposed?

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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It is not opposed.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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It is definitely not opposed.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I ask Deputy Wynne to move that Second Stage be taken in Private Members' time.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."