Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 8, line 37, to delete "January" and substitute "September".

I am pleased to move the amendment. As the Minister will be aware, some 975,000 women are active in Ireland's labour market. Of these, more than 500,000 have children, which means they have caring responsibilities. My concern about this section is that the reduction in maternity benefit from the State at a time when, inevitably, the private sector is also reducing its benefits for working mothers, or in some cases abolishing payments on top of the benefit, is likely to have three effects. First, it is likely to act as a disincentive to come off the live register and seek employment for young women on it who may wish to have children. There is a clear disincentive there. Second, it might lead to an increase in illegal discriminatory practices by employers. Third, it may affect child welfare, as women may be forced to return to the workforce faster than they would have planned in order to obtain a full salary to meet all their bills and financial requirements.

I believe the consequences of this section are unintended, particularly the effect of the introduction of the benefit cut in January 2014. That operational date means that existing pregnant mothers are now essentially being unfairly targeted. I fear that a large swathe of women who planned their pregnancies on an economic basis will lose approximately €800 because of the operational date of this legislation. They have had no forewarning. Our very simple amendments suggest a date of September for those women or, alternatively, a more immediate date of April, which obviously would have less effect in terms of the overall savings expected. I have estimated that the gross cost would be less than 25% of the expected savings, or €7 million, if the April date were implemented. If the Minister was to willing to accept that amendment to this section, it would be a very generous and constructive move and ensure that pregnant women who were planning on the basis of the existing maternity arrangements would not be discriminated against. Essentially, we are appealing to the Minister to postpone the introduction of this cut until April at the earliest so that expectant mothers are not unfairly targeted or discriminated against. I hope the Minister will consider accepting the amendment and looking at the other amendments we have tabled relating to the impact of measures on the number of women entering the labour force, which, as we know, has been declining since 2008.

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