Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and all of his team for bringing forward this legislation. It is very important. I speak as a former local authority member who, when pregnant, was in the chamber, and when I was in the labour ward over in the Rotunda Hospital, my absence was noted and reported. It is an unfair pressure that is put on local authority members. They feel torn between the duties and the responsibilities they have fought for and value and other calls on them such as what we are discussing. It is very important. Local authority members are the backbone of our democracy in their local communities. They are people who come forward and stand up for others. They speak for their immediate local community but also for their wider local authority area and they contribute to national and international developments and debates. They provide an incredibly important role and they are ordinary people, men and women, from whatever their background, be it professional, a teacher, a nurse or carer, who come forward and contribute. The contribution they make to our democracy and to the delivery of government at a local level is invaluable. It is only right they would enjoy the basic rights of other workers, in this instance specifically, maternity leave.

It is also very important this legislation accommodates the need that can arise in exceptional circumstances for a temporary substitution. It has not been in place before and it is not fair either on the individual to feel compromised and torn between their different demands and responsibilities. It is also not fair on the local area they represent if their place goes unfilled or if their local representative is, for whatever extraneous reasons, unable to attend.

I commend the Minister of State and support this legislation. Will the final draft be so specific as to identify what those exceptional qualifying circumstances will be or will it be left as a broader statement and a matter for each local authority to determine whether the request is justified? Well done to the Minister of State.