Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is wrong. The Minister said it was never the policy that women would benefit. The Department of Finance has provided a note to all employers - I am one myself - indicating that maternity benefit is not classed as income. It was always the position of the Department and it is provided for in the legislation that it is not part of income. Obviously, those receiving additional income would be better off when they were on maternity leave. This is a cruel tax and €40 million is a huge amount of money to be brought in. The Minister is talking about women who are pregnant now and will give birth to a child after 1 July 2013. If they are in employment paying a higher rate of tax, they will each end up paying at least €2,500 more to the tax man than if the section did not exist. It is a grab. There are other ways to bring in money. To target pregnant women is not the right way to do it. We have not even spoken about the health and safety benefit in terms of taxation which is equally cruel. Women who are pregnant and go on leave to nurse their children will pay €2,500 to €2,600 in additional tax if they are in the higher band while taking a reduction in child benefit. I spoke earlier about equality proofing which would have discovered these statistics and shown how this policy would affect mothers and children. It is simply unfair.