Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 27 Feb 2001

Vol. 531 No. 3

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

John Perry

Ceist:

373 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will intervene on behalf of a person (details supplied) and grant her the additional four weeks' paid maternity leave; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5775/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

The Maternity Protection Act, 1994, has been amended by means of an order which was made on 8 February 2001. This amendment entitles a pregnant employee who commences maternity leave at any time on or after 8 March 2001 to maternity leave consisting of 18 consecutive weeks' leave, which attracts a payment, and eight consecutive weeks' unpaid leave. A woman who would be due to commence additional unpaid maternity leave on or after 8 March 2001 will be entitled to avail of eight weeks' unpaid leave.

As the person to whom the Deputy refers is already on maternity leave, she will not be entitled to the increased period of paid leave. However, if she does not commence unpaid maternity leave until on or after 8 March, she will be entitled to apply for eight weeks' unpaid leave instead of four weeks if she so wishes. There is no provision under the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, for increased entitlements to leave in respect of multiple births.

I wish to clarify the position regarding the commencement date for the increased entitlements. As part of the budget announcement on 6 December 2000, the Minister for Finance announced that the increased entitlements would apply from early April 2001. Most increases provided by the annual Social Welfare Bill apply from April or even later.

After the budget announcement, officials in my Department looked into the possibility of applying the maternity leave increases not only to women who commence maternity leave from early April but also to women who go on leave prior to that date. This issue was examined in conjunction with officials from the Departments of Finance and Social, Community and Family Affairs and the Attorney General's office.

It is essential that an order made under the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, would comply with that Act. The Attorney General advised me that it would not be possible to have the order extend the increased period of maternity leave to those persons who could not comply with the notice requirements of the parent Act, that is, to employer by employees, and that any attempt to make the order retrospective could be deemed to adversely affect the rights of employers and would be open to challenge. The increases in maternity leave are not merely a matter of the State paying out extra weeks of maternity benefit. They have a major impact on employers in many ways, for example, the need to replace employees for a longer period than expected, and, in some cases, contractual obligations in respect of payment. The effective dates of the increases as set out in the order take account of the notice requirements under the Act. The position, therefore, is that the need to comply with the Maternity Protection Act, 1994, limited the extent to which the increases could be applied to persons already on maternity leave.