It was about a year ago that we had a very emotive debate in the House when Senator Nicole Ryan brought suggestions for a Bill on miscarriage leave. I was on this side of the House. It was very hard to actually be debating it when I think everybody in this House wanted to see something like that happen. However, the advice was that it was under the wrong Act - it was under the working time Act - and we had a promise from the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, that this would be worked on over the year, and that we would be coming back with something a year later.

This is such a positive day because, today, the proposal for miscarriage leave was brought to Cabinet by the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke. Senator Nicole Ryan and I, with other Senators, including Senators Patricia Stephenson, Tom Clonan and Evanne Ní Chuilinn, and many TDs - it was a complete cross-party Oireachtas group - came together and have been working on how to actually do this over the last year. Today is a very positive day for all of us in our group. We have all worked together as a cross-party group. It goes to show that cross-party groups can really work because today is a very positive day in bringing forward miscarriage leave.

It means that women who have baby losses under 23 weeks will be able to take five days of paid leave. That is a very positive day. As somebody who has suffered miscarriages myself, I can say that it is such a positive day. I thank everybody in that group, particularly the Senators in this Chamber who worked on the group, because it is a day to be acknowledged. Hopefully, we will see it come through quickly.

I want to follow on from that by asking the Leader to speak to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, who is working very hard on a baby loss register. This will allow people who may have been unable to get scan pictures in the first 11 or 12 weeks to voluntarily register that they were pregnant and lost a baby. I imagine that would very much help in the grieving process. The Minister is working on that. Will the Leader write to him to ask where we are on that? Officials have been keeping in touch with me and our group, and they have been good. A register would follow on nicely from the proposal for miscarriage leave being brought to Cabinet. I thank everybody in the House today and the Senators and TDs who worked in this group. It is a positive day as we can now say that we will soon have five days' leave for people who suffered a miscarriage under 23 weeks.

I thank the Senator for sharing her story and for recognising all the work of Senators and others on this important issue.