Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and thank my colleague, Deputy Kerrane, for bringing it forward. One thing we all must accept is that Covid-19 has changed things utterly and we simply cannot dismiss matters that would have been rejected out of hand by Governments in the past. Who would have thought that a Government would introduce a one-tier health system overnight or ban rent increases, a policy that had been opposed so hard previously? The same approach is now needed with regard to childcare and maternity leave. Both are inextricably linked.

Many of us have spent sleepless nights taking care of a sick child, naturally hoping that the child would improve but also panicking about how we would mind the sick child in the morning when we clearly could not access childcare and the child was too sick to go to school. How many of us have encouraged one of our children out the door to school when, privately and honestly, we thought the child should be at home? As we had no childcare backup, we did not have any choice because we had to be in work that day. Yes, Zoom and Teams will be a godsend for many families, but what if a person has no childcare at all?

I have been receiving messages from parents, not just first-time parents but also parents of siblings in childcare. One is that there is no crèche in the area that will accept a child under the age of two years due to the coronavirus, not to mind a six month old. Another is that the parents have been informed that the crèche where their baby was due to start has decided to stop taking children under one year old due to the restrictions being placed on it as a result of Covid-19. This places the parents in the impossible position of having no childcare for the baby. That is the practical problem women are now facing. There is no childcare alternative available for them such as would have been available before Covid-19.

There is a further aspect to this that we cannot ignore, the mental health of mothers. All of us accept that Covid-19 has had a detrimental impact on the mental health of many people in society, and it has compounded an already stressful time for new mothers. From the conversations I have had with mothers and the messages my office has received, it is clear that some mothers are suffering as a direct result of Covid-19, the lockdown, the lack of contact with family, the stress of childcare provision as well as concerns that we all share about a second wave of infection. A three-month extension to maternity leave for this cohort of mothers would help to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety and ultimately help to reduce the pressure on mental health services. A Vision for Change, the World Health Organization and even the United Nations have clearly identified maternal mental health as a priority for society. Some 13% of women experience postnatal depression during the first year after birth, and in some instances this can persist for long periods of time. It can have an adverse effect on the entire family, including on partners and on the emotional and cognitive development of infants and their siblings.

I listened intently to the Minister's response earlier. She highlighted the additional impact this would have in terms of cost on employers. It is a fact that employers are currently legally obliged, if requested, to provide an additional 16 weeks' maternity leave. It is also the case that employers are not legally obliged to top up the salary with respect to maternity benefit. I can fully understand and empathise with many employers who are not in the financial position to top up that payment. However, the State has been intervening in terms of people who were working part time for four hours per week and was prepared to pay them €350 per week, against the advice I gave the then Taoiseach and the party leaders at that time. That decision was taken, yet it is not prepared to pay this small cohort of women €245 per week for three months.

The issue regarding maternity leave masks a far greater problem with regard to childcare capacity, which is the return to schools and the impact this will have on women, in particular. We must do everything possible to ensure the schools can fully reopen in September. My concern is that any reduction in the number of hours or days that children attend school, particularly primary school, will impact disproportionately on thousands of women throughout the country. We have already seen the impact of the lack of childcare on our front-line staff. We are seeing it again now as parents are struggling to find childcare for young children where they cannot work from home and where grandparents are unable to help as they traditionally would have. If schools do not fully reopen in September, there will be a far wider impact on the current crisis.

If we are facing a situation where childcare facilities are not going to open or will only take reduced numbers or not cater for children under the age of two years, leaving parents without childcare options, especially where they need to return to employment and where the work cannot be done from home, we must examine solutions that would not have been contemplated prior to Covid-19. The provision put forward by Deputy Kerrane is one. Her proposal of a three-month extension for maternity leave is sensible. I ask the Government to reconsider the amendment it has tabled and to support this proposal, not reject it out of hand.

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