Mr. John McKeon:

We will pay it. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will have to look at it. There are other benefits available to people at the end of maternity leave. There is parental leave, which is separate from maternity leave. We can certainly cover that. There are instances where people are in real financial difficulty. We have a safety net, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. We always encourage people not to be fearful of applying for that supplementary welfare allowance scheme. It is there to support people who might not be able to work for one reason or another, where they face financial difficulties as a result. It is not the perfect solution but it would certainly deal with the cases where there would be the most hardship as a consequence.