Maternity benefit has been chargeable to income tax since 1 July 2013. It is assumed that the Deputy is referring to a scenario where an employee receives full wages or salary while on maternity leave and the maternity benefit is mandated by the employee directly to their employer. I understand that in such a scenario an employee should not pay more tax than they would if they were not in receipt of maternity benefit. If the Deputy has a particular individual in mind, and he wishes to provide me with further details of the individual concerned, I will ask the Revenue Commissioners to look into the matter. Alternatively, the individual could contact their local Revenue district directly. Details of the relevant contact phone numbers can be found on www.revenue.ie.