I am delighted to introduce the health (postponement of certain leave) Bill, colloquially known as the leave our leave Bill. I would like to have No. 10 taken before No. 1. The campaign for this Bill has been driven by the Irish Cancer Society and patient advocates like Erica Tierney. The Bill is supported by my colleagues in the Fianna Fáil group and I hope it will get cross-party support. Every year, more than 60 women receive a cancer diagnosis and commence treatment during their maternity leave. This Bill proposes a mechanism to postpone maternity leave for those receiving treatment after a cancer diagnosis. The statistics rarely change. Every year, we are failing 60 women with their new babies by not allowing them to postpone their maternity leave. It is an issue that needs to be addressed. We have addressed postponement of leave when it comes to the hospitalisation of premature babies and the associated leave for the mother, so it can be done.

As a former chair of the cross-party group on cancer, I have raised this issue with the Minister in this House, along with my colleagues and many others. In 2023, the Minister committed to legislation, but to date nothing has passed through this House. I note the Minister is now in the middle of a leadership campaign, but I hope that he considers this Bill urgently and allows it to pass this House and the Dáil. We know how precious the early days are as a new mum and cannot imagine how much harder that would be when going through treatment and possibly being separated from your baby for periods. I want to be a voice for these women.

I got an email from Erica Tierney, who is one of the primary advocates of the leave our leave campaign. She wrote an email to us all, stating:

Dear Senators,

I have been campaigning for this matter since the birth of my beautiful daughter Róise, who is now four, with the Irish Cancer Society. We know this issue affects 60 women a year and we have been promised reform since 2023. I am very anxious that another year does not pass without the reform so that mothers like me are not failed again each week that goes on and it really adds to the trauma.

I have cancer again and I am undergoing chemo again, but I have to keep campaigning on this because I cannot bear that it is still happening to other women. Please support the Bill passing through the Seanad and support it in the Dáil too.

Best wishes to you all and thank you for listening,

Erica

I personally want to thank Erica for being so brave. She is undergoing chemotherapy at the moment but she is not letting this go. Her fight continues. I commend her, from all of us.

Well done to Senator Ardagh.

I commend Senator Ardagh on her Bill. I cannot see anyone not supporting it in its entirety.

I have just come from the Committee on Autism's first year anniversary meeting, in which it listed its recommendations and the progress thereon. I want to first reflect on the fact that there is never a case here where a committee sits, produces a report and has a progress report a year on. That is fantastic. Many Members of this House participated in that committee.

I pay particular tribute to Senator Carrigy, however. Any of us who are in the parliamentary party with him will know we get weekly reminders and progress. It is our privilege, and mine in my spokespersonship, to support him completely. He is a tenacious advocate. Progress happens because of many things and much hard work by many people, but Senator Carrigy in particular has taken this and absolutely run with it. He leaves no stone unturned. I want to pay tribute to him.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. I have always worked very closely with the Ministers of State, Deputies Rabbitte and Madigan, and now with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton. It is great to see progress. I see the terrible frustration of parents. I sit daily with parents who are trying to find school places, trying to get support services and trying to get speech and language therapies and all those things all of the time. All progress is to be celebrated, but no matter how far we go, there is still a long way to go.

Having that co-ordinated effort under the Taoiseach's Department and with the special new committee, we can see the momentum where nobody can be siloed anymore. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, cannot be isolated anymore and told she will not get co-operation. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, cannot be told that because the Taoiseach is chairing a committee that sits weekly to ask what the progress is, what the impediments are, how we get over them and how we deal with them.

One of the frustrations or one of the things on which there has certainly been progress, and on which the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has made real progress, is this idea of the role of special educational needs organisers, SENOs. Any of us who have been at public meetings with organisations like Involve Autism and the Dublin 12 autism advocacy group would be horrified by the fact it has been the experience of parents to apply up to 20, 30 or 40 schools. They are given a list of schools and that is the extent of the support in many instances. It is good to see progress. Intensive training of SENOs is going on and, therefore, from September, that will not be the case. It is to be hoped this will be the last year where parents are tearing their hair out to the extent they are. I do not understand how there is not a central portal. My ask of the Leader is that we have statements in this House for a year-on update, exactly as we saw happen downstairs. Why not for Senators? Senators in this House have advocated passionately on behalf of autism services. Can we have statements in the House on it?

I want to begin by wishing the Minister, Deputy Ryan, well after his decision not to run for re-election. I wish everybody who ran in the recent local and European elections well, those who were elected and who failed to be elected. It is such an important part of our democracy. One of the things the Minister spoke about yesterday was about some of the ill feeling and negativity that has crept into the online space. It is very reassuring to hear so many public representatives say that was not the case among the real people on the doorsteps during the campaigning, which is very reassuring to hear.

We have had a lot of drama over recent weeks but I want to raise the issue this morning in the House of a very grave situation that is developing in the Middle East. We have 120 or so Irish men and women who represent us and the international community in south Lebanon as peacekeepers with UNIFIL. Unfortunately, Benjamin Netanyahu has since 7 October threatened to invade south Lebanon to confront Hezbollah fully. In fact, he gave an order on 8 October that south Lebanon be invaded, one day after Hamas' appalling genocidal attack on Israel. That was vetoed by Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, two former chiefs of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. In the past week, both Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot have resiled and stepped back from Netanyahu's war cabinet, which now gives him free rein to invade south Lebanon, as he has repeatedly threatened to do. As we speak, the Golani Brigade and the Nahal Brigade are assembled and ready to go across the border. This day last week, Hezbollah fired more than 220 missiles into Galilee, setting place like Qiryat Shemona and places just north of Tiberias in Galilee on fire.

I ask that we think in the coming days and weeks of our fellow Irish men and women who are out there and who are basically human shields between Hezbollah on one side and Israel on the other. I am conscious that perhaps we in this jurisdiction do not pay enough attention to what our troops are doing overseas on our behalf and on behalf of the international community. We must also think of the people of south Lebanon. The last time the Israelis went in, they massacred Lebanese civilians indiscriminately all over Lebanon, particularly in Qana. They also murdered UN observers in Khiam. I would be concerned, especially in the context of the absolutely pejorative language that is being used by Israel with regard to our foreign policy position on Palestine, that it might view the Irish in a very negative light. We need to give them all of our support.