Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
40. Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when the new domestic violence leave policy will come into effect; what rate of payment will be available; how a person may avail of the leave from the effective date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48474/23]
View answerWhen will the new domestic violence leave policy come into effect? What will the rate of payment be? How might a person avail of the leave from the effective date?
Earlier this year, the Work Life Balance And Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 was signed into law. It includes five days leave paid for victims of domestic violence. I am pleased to confirm that the provisions relating to domestic violence leave will be commenced on 27 November. From that day, people will be entitled to claim the leave where needed. Once introduced, Ireland will become one of the first countries in Europe to provide a statutory right to paid leave for domestic violence victims.
The introduction of this new right will help to ensure that no one who is experiencing domestic violence will be at risk of poverty or loss of income while seeking support. In order to support employers with the implementation of this new leave, my Department has commissioned Women’s Aid to develop supports for employers on their own domestic violence workplace policies. A dedicated website has been established, DVatWork.ie, where employers can find a guidance note and policy template and can also sign up for training webinars. In addition, an advice service for employers will be offered for the next six months.
This Government is committed to a zero tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. These new supports will help to ensure that workplaces are safe spaces for employees who have experienced domestic violence and who need help to move towards lives free of any such violence.
The implementation of this new measure from 27 November is a significant step forward. As I say, Ireland will be one of the first European countries to implement this leave on a paid statutory basis. I am particularly grateful for the co-operation of the trade unions and employers groups, and, in particular, of Women's Aid, in designing the policy templates to assist employers in implementing this important new innovation.
I thank the Minister. I acknowledge the amount of work within the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act the Minister referenced. It includes five days of unpaid leave for parents for medical care purposes. It also includes five days' leave for the victims of domestic violence we are discussing this evening. It further includes the right to request flexible working for parents and carers and the right to request remote working for all employees. It also includes two years of breast-feeding breaks.
If I talked about paternal leave, for example, there is something of a cultural handbrake around people availing of it properly. We absolutely need to financially underpin people who need to take that jump to get out of an abusive relationship and we need to ensure they are not trapped in those relationships by dint of financial restrictions. However, we also need to normalise paid provisions. I am not talking about domestic violence leave now. We must normalise those other paid provisions so people take them up. We need to avoid a cultural handbrake and ensure no stigma is attaching to availing of these payments so that people can really avail of them.
Paid parents' leave was originally introduced by the previous Government and offered two weeks of leave per year per parent. At the time, we saw a significant imbalance, in that mums took that leave but dads did not. During the Covid-19 pandemic, that changed. We have now extended it by so much that by August of next year, paid parents' leave will have gone from two weeks per parent per child to nine weeks. That is significant. It is a seven-week increase of paid leave for each parent in the term of one Government. That is something for which I and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys - we both have responsibilities in that regard - have pushed. During the pandemic, we saw a significant increase in dads taking up paid parents' leave. I will look up the figures for the uptake last year but it certainly increased. We are doing a good job to normalise it so that both mums and dads take up their full allocations of paid leave.
I thank the Minister. The other side of the coin is that we need to work with employers. We need to fully support employers so that if anybody is looking to avail of any of these types of leave, but in particular the domestic violence leave to which my question goes, there is no question of hesitancy on the behalf of employers. It must become normalised so that if somebody finds themselves in such a situation, the State and employers are there to help them. Certainly in today's workforce, that is absolutely appropriate. Employees should be supported within their changing life situations, be that through domestic violence leave, parents' leave or whatever else. However, we must work proactively with employers. It is entirely correct that we have tried to introduce these new rights. These are not the only rights we have introduced to the workplace. There has been a large amount of change in a short space of time, which I welcome. It shows how transformative the Minister has been in his role. However, we need to continue to engage with employers to ensure the proper supports are there.
I thank the Deputy. He is right. When we were doing the consultation on the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, one of the big issues that employer groups raised was that their members, particularly small and medium-sized business, were nervous about domestic violence leave. They were nervous about getting that knowledge from their employees and what they were to do with the information. They asked did it put legal responsibilities on them. That is why we have worked with Women's Aid to design this policy template guidance to support workers whether their employee is asking for this particular leave or more generally reveals that he or she is a victim of domestic violence. We want to support workers in that regard. It is a difficult conversation for any of us and we need to support employers too.
The Deputy mentioned breast-feeding breaks and the extension from six months to two years after birth. That is one of the most significant changes we have brought in through this legislation. It is now applying. That right allows a woman who is returning to work after maternity leave to take up to an hour off per day to breast-feed. That now applies. It will have a major impact in supporting new mothers who are returning to the workplace.
