New Labour bill would give workers paid time off for cancer screening appointments
Mr Smith said spotting cancer early on 'can be lifesaving'.
'There's no need to have this grey area where some people are using their holiday entitlements or sick leave just to go to a screening appointment. Let's just take a common-sense approach and make it as easy as possible to get to,' he said.
'Labour's Health Screening Leave Bill will be introduced into the Dáil this Thursday. It'd be an easy win for Fine Gael to act and introduce this Bill and I'd urge the Minister to take it on board sooner rather than later.
'Every family in Ireland has been touched by cancer in some way. Early detection saves lives, and we cannot afford to wait. No more excuses, for any of us.'
The TD said workers are 'so busy and stretched' that when a screening appointment letter comes through the door, 'their first instinct is to put it off'.
The Organisation of Working Time (Leave for Health Screening Purposes) Bill 2025 would create a statutory entitlement to paid leave for employees to take part in health screening programmes.
But health screening leave would only apply for workers who need time off work to attend a cervical, breast or colon cancer screening programme, provided by a medical practitioner because of the worker's age, gender and general health status.
Earlier this year, the Government paused plans to hike sick leave for all employees by two extra days, from five days to seven.
This decision was made due to fears over looming tariff increases imposed by US President Donal Trump on the EU.
The Government believes hiking sick leave will make it more difficult for businesses to trade and be profitable, causing them to close and jobs being lost.
Under the proposed Labour law, cancer screening will be added to periods that should be included when calculating continuity of service for redundancies.
The Irish Cancer Society estimates around 40,000 people get cancer in Ireland each year, which includes cancers which spread and ones that do not.
According to the charity, most recent research shows there are now more than 24,200 invasive cases of cancers which spread diagnosed each year.
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