Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a question about pension entitlements. Councillors have access to a State pension since 2016, but until then they were paying the class K scale. No retrospective action was taken. Will the review investigate this?

My second question is about councillors' maternity leave. Section 37 of the Local Government Act 2001 states that the councillors shall be deemed to have resigned from membership of a local authority if they miss meetings for a period of six months. In addition, they must attend 80% of the meetings to receive payment and expenses. The obstacles to women are obvious and have affected all political parties and others. I am aware that the Minister of State is interested in this, but can he give a commitment to having a discussion and tabling an amendment to the Local Government Act 2001? Will he consult with the main parties, the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, LAMA, the National Women's Council and so forth? I am sure we can reach agreement on it.