Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for bringing this petition. I will give it full and meaningful consideration over the next couple of days. I mean that. A lot of the legislation the Deputy mentioned was passed when we had a properly constituted Seanad. We do not have one now, so we are not in a position to enact primary legislation. This may require that. We cannot always bring in retrospective legislation. The leave aspect would be justice legislation and the benefit aspect would be social protection legislation. We will give it due consideration. I am aware of the strength of feeling behind the campaign and I can certainly see the benefits of extending maternity leave and maternity benefit for families who had a newborn in the last couple of months.

I am always nervous when reading stories in the newspapers that relate to scientific papers because they are often not reported correctly. However, I read an interesting story in the papers today showing that there had been a significant decrease in the number of babies of low birth weight born in University Maternity Hospital Limerick. That is really interesting because a few weeks ago we worried that the increase in stress and anxiety during this period would have negative health impacts. I think it has, but this positive health impact is a silver lining. It seems that the lockdown has led to a different lifestyle, resulting in fewer babies being born with a low birth weight. That is really significant but it is only one study. We would not want to read too much into it but it is interesting.

See this speech in context