Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too am supporting the motion. I compliment the Deputy and Sinn Féin on putting it forward. I hope this new and what is meant to be all-embracing Government will understand it and try to support it.

Covid-19 has resulted in a very difficult time for many families but especially mothers who have experienced the pleasure, beauty and joy of giving birth to a baby. Many such mothers were unable to have the support of their partners or husbands because of the lockdown and the situation regarding entry to hospitals. The daddies and fathers had to wait until such time as mother and baby were being discharged even to see their babies. As a proud grandparent of eight wonderful grandchildren, I know what it is like for grandparents to have to wait to get to see and hold and embrace their grandchildren. It is a very joyous and spontaneous event for them to meet their grandchild in the first days. It is normally in the hospital that this happens.

Mothers have been denied so much and need now to be supported, dealt with sensitively and engaged with. Many of them have not had even the pleasure - the necessity, really - of having the community nurse visit them to do the checkup on the child and to discuss his or her weight and feeding. Such visits are very important to both mother and baby and indeed the father and all the siblings. I receive emails from many grandparents and many mothers in this position and it is heart-rending to see them not being supported. A paltry amount was offered yesterday, and the three weeks' extra leave announced is just not enough. We have found money for everything in the Covid pandemic. I know there will be a payback day. I spoke in strong terms to the Minister for Finance about the €350 payment for everybody, no matter if they were working two hours or ten hours per week. It was ridiculous and gave people a sense of that money. People will miss it terribly when it is cut off from them. It will affect their applications for their SUSI grants and everything else. It was a rushed decision. We had no problem with the money. Now it is proposed to pay mothers €245 for 12 weeks. Our children are our very future. A nation is not a nation without its children. They are the most important people to be nourished.

In 2017 we introduced extended maternity leave for parents of premature children. At the time I very much welcomed this extension. My first grandchild, Amy-Berry, was born at just 30 weeks and spent over three months in hospital, so I understand the difficulties, stress and worries such situations bring. Back then there was no extension to maternity benefit. Thankfully, this was rectified, but I said at the time that what we were introducing had a lot of glaring anomalies in it, and it did, as much legislation does. I am sure the motion we are debating has many anomalies as well. Parents of premature children get an extra week's maternity benefit, depending on how prematurely the baby was born, to help them cope with extra hospital stays in neonatal units. However, parents of children with life-limiting conditions born at full term and facing the same long stays in neonatal units receive nothing extra. That is an awful statement. Is it any wonder the thinking was along those lines when we see the savage abortion regime introduced in 2018?

We have to think seriously about supporting the mothers and the babies. I will probably be attacked for saying this, but the mothers are normally the homemakers. They do a wonderful job and must be supported. I salute the mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers and siblings for the support they give families. There is a saying in Africa, I think, that it takes a village to rear a child. It takes a whole family. It is a very lonely place for a single mother. a mother who is away or, in this case, a mother in hospital on her own. If there are any issues or delayed discharge after the birth, it is very harrowing and very tiring on them. There is also the huge fear of being in hospital and perhaps coming into contact with Covid patients and becoming infected.

As I said, both parents need to be supported. We now have paternity leave as well. Deputy Naughten mentioned employers, especially small ones in the current situation, who will find it hard to pay the extra leave. Nonetheless, and I keep saying this, small employers especially value their staff. It is a two-way street. The staff value, appreciate and respect their employers and many amicable agreements are worked out.

As I said, the parents of premature babies face a lifetime of hospital appointments, long hospital stays and many life challenges but they get no such support. Therefore, while I support the motion, I ask that this group of parents are given support outside of the Covid-19 temporary extension because they need it. It is not because Covid is here that they need it. They need it all the more now that Covid is here but they need it in any case. We have to nurture our youngest and our babies. They are the adults of the future and the people who will fill up our schools and go on to third level education and indeed run our country and fill all the roles.

One of my other concerns is that over-66s have been left with nothing. Many of them are grandparents. This is heartless. These grandparents want to help rear their grandchildren, collect them from the crèches, bring them home, collect them from school, bring them to sports - whatever - to support the working families and the two parents who work because they have to work. That is a very sad outcome. It should be remembered that many of those grandparents will be called on again when their great-grandchildren are born. It is a wonderful thing to be able to help in such cases.

Mention was made of mental health, which is very important and a huge issue, and the damaging effect the Covid lockdown has had on people's mental health. Some 13% of mothers suffer postnatal depression. They need extra support and help. The fact that they are being forced back to work now, just out of their maternity leave, can bring its own stresses and strains on mental health. Because of Covid they have had no time until recent weeks to go out for a meal or a walk with their husband or partner or whoever else and their baby. Those are the normal things they do. They are so proud. They have pride in their eyes and their faces when they present their babies to people. They look forward to the christening and their long life together. It is very important that this support be found. After all, we can find savage amounts of money to pay for an abortion industry in which 6,666 children were aborted last year. We have no bother paying the money for that or encouraging more of it. We should be able to find this support for the living babies. All the babies from the womb to the tomb should be spared. The legislation in this area is unequal. I appeal to the Minister of State's better judgment to support these mothers and families.

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