Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Pregnancy is not an illness. Obviously, people are entitled to maternity leave. If there are illnesses associated with pregnancy, they are, as I indicated, treated in a special way. The Deputy is saying someone who has a pregnancy-related illness is anxious that she might be ill for another reason later after the pregnancy. We can address when that might happen as opposed to being anxious that they are clocking up days. Pregnancy-related illness was never fully discounted in sick leave arrangements. We have looked carefully at what the European Court of Justice has stated.

We are applying best international practice to it. Ours is not only equivalent to but as good as any sick leave arrangement we have studied. We will see how this pans out. I do not think that women who are pregnant and are out of work with pregnancy-related illnesses should be anxious that somehow they might get ill again and that it might impact on them.

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