Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 April 2005
98 Mr. O’Connor asked the Minister for Finance the arrangements for maternity leave within the public sector; if he will consider providing an additional eight weeks paid leave in regard to maternity leave; the likely cost thereof; the likely cost to the Exchequer of six weeks’ paid parental leave; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12004/05]
View answerThe arrangements for maternity leave for civil servants come within my area of responsibility. Arrangements in other parts of the public service are the responsibility of the appropriate Minister.
Under maternity protection legislation all employees are entitled to 18 weeks' paid maternity leave and eight weeks' additional unpaid maternity leave. Maternity benefit is payable to employees for the 18 weeks' maternity leave where they meet certain social insurance conditions on their own insurance record.
Current arrangements for civil servants entitle the majority of women to their normal rate of pay while on maternity leave, irrespective of whether they qualify for maternity benefit. No payment is made in respect of an absence on additional maternity leave.
The Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 introduced a wide range of improvements to maternity protection legislation. These include paid time off for a full set of ante-natal classes for mothers and paid time off for two ante-natal classes for fathers, provision to cancel additional unpaid maternity leave in order to move to sick leave in the event of the illness of the mother, postponement of leave in the event of the hospitalisation of the child and the introduction of paid breast-feeding breaks. These improvements, while welcome, will increase costs in the Civil Service, as they will for all employers, and there are no plans for any further improvements to the Civil Service maternity leave arrangements at present.
As regards an estimate of costs, there are approximately 700 instances of maternity leave among civil servants each year. The value of an additional eight weeks paid maternity leave, if staff were paid their normal rate of pay, would be approximately €4 million extra each year.
An estimate was provided by the working group on the review of the Parental Leave Act 1998 in its report published on 29 April 2002. The group estimated that the cost to the public sector of 14 weeks parental leave at full pay, similar to maternity leave, would amount to €50.5 million based on 2001 costs. At current costs the figure would be approximately €60.6 million. On this basis the likely cost to the public sector of six weeks' paid parental leave at current costs would be approximately €26 million depending on uptake.
The Deputy may be interested to note that fathers in the Civil Service are entitled to three days' paid paternity leave on the birth or adoption of their child. In 2003 approximately 300 fathers availed of this leave.
