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The bill, approved by Cabinet on 14 July, introduces a statutory right to paid leave for employees who experience pregnancy loss before 23 weeks' gestation, closing a long-standing gap in Irish employment law. Our post walks through exactly what's in it: five paid days a year, day-one eligibility with a 13-week service requirement for payment, the option to split leave into two weeks, a 56-week window to use it, and pay structured the same way as statutory sick leave.

Beyond the legislative detail, we wanted this post to be genuinely useful for HR teams rather than just a news recap. That's why we've included a practical section on what to do now - updating leave policies ahead of commencement, preparing managers to handle these conversations with the sensitivity they require, and tightening up record-keeping for a leave type with quite specific rules around timing, splitting, and medical certification. We also flag where employers might choose to go beyond the legal minimum, since plenty already do.

This fits into the broader theme we keep coming back to on the blog: leave entitlements in Ireland are multiplying and getting more complex, and the employers who get ahead of changes like this - rather than scrambling once they land - are the ones who handle them well. As always, we've noted that this is general guidance based on the bill's current draft stage, and that employers should confirm final obligations once the legislation is finalised.