A new law to give up to five days paid leave to women who suffer miscarriages before 23 weeks is expected to be approved by Cabinet when it meets at Government Buildings on Tuesday morning.
Ministers are expected to approve the general scheme or “heads” – outlining its main provisions – of the proposed legislation, which has been widely flagged in recent weeks.
It will be proposed by Minister for Employment Peter Burke and will be drafted in full before being published and brought to the Oireachtas.
The planned law will give women who have experienced pregnancy loss an entitlement of five days’ sick leave once their doctor has certified the loss. It will include situations where women have had abortions, as long as the end of the pregnancy has been certified by their doctor. The cost of the sick leave will be borne by employers and the total annual cost is estimated at about €10 million.
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At present, women employees are entitled to full maternity leave in the case of a stillbirth after 23 weeks of gestation. However, there is no provision for leave before this time.
The move is expected to have all-party backing.
Elsewhere, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will seek agreement for plans to ban the possession, production or sharing of pornography that depicts extreme or violent acts or acts of necrophilia.
The proposed legislation would ban videos of extreme or violent acts being perpetrated against real people, but it would also cover pornography generated using artificial intelligence (AI) programmes.
The move would be included in already approved legislation being prepared in the Department of Justice.
O’Callaghan will also present the annual report of the Criminal Assets Bureau, showing returns to the exchequer in 2025 of €14.93 million (down slightly from the €17.05 million in 2024).
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Minister for Housing James Browne will present a progress report to the Cabinet on his housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, launched last year.
Browne will claim progress on several fronts, including: advancing the work of the Housing Activation Office; the announcement of a housing infrastructure investment fund; and comprehensive reforms to the rental sector.
But Opposition parties will point to continuing record levels of homelessness and the glut of evictions that followed the introduction of new tenancy rules earlier this year. Supply in the sector remains tight.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien will bring annual reports for his department and for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which spent almost €2 billion in 2025, including on the MetroLink project, national road projects, greenway programmes, and active travel.
Meanwhile, Government leaders were expected to discuss Budget 2027 issues when they met on Monday night. The summer economic statement, a key document in the development of the budget, which will outline the overall size of the package, is expected to be published next week.
