Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Taking the Department of Finance as being the leadership Department of the public service, as opposed to all Civil Service positions, would the Minister agree that women who have professional careers in the public service at all grades are paying a penalty in this day and age in their ability to get promotion, status and the pay that comes with promotion for taking time out to have children? They are penalised by public service norms on promotion, largely as a consequence of taking time out at a certain point in their career to have children.

It should be borne in mind that if somebody has two or three children and ends up taking three to six years of maternity and parental leave in a 40 year career, that is a relatively small amount of time, and as we know, many men take time out to take a career break or pursue studies. Our system has to play catch up in the proper reflection of women at different grades.

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