Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Honest to God, I cannot get my head around the Labour Party supporting a second cut to maternity benefit. The net saving will be approximately €20 million. Let us put that in context. Add together automatic pay rises in the public sector since the collapse and the approximate €700 million for increments in the budget next year. Compare that with €20 million.

As the Minister knows, consistent research across the world shows that social transfers that go directly to the mothers of young children are passed on almost entirely to the welfare of the children. This is accepted policy worldwide. Instead, we are taking €832 away from the welfare of newborn babies. If Deputy O'Dea's figures are correct and the Minister, Deputy Noonan's tax cuts from last year are included, the overall figure is €3,500 that used to go directly to the welfare of newborn babies. I cannot get my head around it. Some have claimed that this will force mothers back to work more quickly, but we have some of the most expensive child care in the world. They are damned if they do and damned if they do not.

This is another policy in a consistent trend of discrimination against women since budget 2008. For example, there is a second cut to maternity benefit in a year, yet there are tax breaks for the construction sector. This is borne out in the social outcomes. The unemployment figures are interesting. Since 2008, the number of men on the live register has decreased by approximately 50,000. The number of women on the live register has not moved at all.

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