Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the Extend Maternity Leave 2020 campaign, which drove a grassroots campaign last year to extend paid maternity leave during the pandemic. More than 30,000 people signed a petition in support of that and the issue was debated in the Dáil.

Unfortunately, because of the long and many delays before this comes into effect, the majority of those people who were campaigning then will not be able to benefit from it. They also correctly view this as the Government saying it is doing this in response to their campaign when in reality it was part of the programme for Government and was planned in advance.

Obviously, I welcome the extension of paid parental leave from two to five weeks. I also welcomed the provisions extending adoptive leave to male same-sex couples. That is a long overdue correction of discrimination against gay men in this area.

I want to raise three problems with the Bill. The first is the rate of parent's benefit, which is too low at only €245 per week. The second is the fact that the various forms of paid parental leave should be extended to at least a year. The third is a point which has been referred to, namely, the discrimination against the children of lone parents. Both parents should be entitled to take this up as a basic equality measure for a group that has been discriminated against.

In regard to the first issue, the Government's estimates give the game away. It estimates that the Bill will result in a cost of €22 million in a full year and will support up to 39,000 parents. There were just under 60,000 births in 2019, which means, therefore, that the Government is banking on over 60% of parents not taking up parent's leave. The main reason why they will not take it up is because the rate of pay is so low, at €245 a week. That is €105 a week less than the standard rate of the pandemic unemployment payment which provides a basic, but by no means comfortable, replacement income level. It is a mere €42 a week more than the poverty level jobseeker's benefit. For a family with two children where both parents are on maternity benefit or parent's leave, they fall well below the poverty line of €525 per week as calculated by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

The €245 rate is the same rate as paternity and maternity benefit. The higher rate of maternity benefit of €262, which was the rate applicable to 90% of women prior to January 2014 when it was cut as part of the bank bailout and austerity measures, has still not been restored eight years later. That is how much Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party value women and families.

A survey by the Trades Union Congress in Britain in 2017 found that Ireland was the worst country in the EU for decently-paid maternity leave, which it defined using the EU definition of at least two thirds of normal wages. By contrast, a payment of €245 equates to only around a quarter of average wages. The only other EU countries not to offer decently paid paternity leave were Britain and Slovakia.

As a result of the rate being so low, wealthier parents can afford to take parent's leave but many working-class parents who still have to pay rent or a mortgage, as well as all of their other living costs, cannot afford to take time off to be with their babies. This reinforces sexist gender norms. If only one parent takes the leave, it is overwhelmingly likely to be the mother because women still earn much less than men, on average, and because mothers are entitled to 26 weeks of maternity leave compared to a paltry two weeks paternity leave, and so almost always end up being the primary carer from the very beginning.

Leave on full pay should be available for all forms of parental leave, including maternity, paternity, parent's leave and parental leave, which is currently completely unpaid. Parents and working class people generally want properly paid parental leave. A January 2019 RED C opinion poll carried out for Early Childhood Ireland found that 59% agreed that parental leave benefit should be 66% of pay, with support for this being higher among women than men presumably because men assume women will take it.

The opposition to this is coming from right wing governments and employers. According to the CSO, 46% of women on maternity leave in 2019 did not get any top-up from their employer and therefore only received €245 per week. The levels vary dramatically based on sector. For example, almost all of those working in public administration and defence received a top-up, whereas 61% of women working in accommodation and food services did not get any top-up.

The second point is the period of paid parent's leave. The total period of paid leave per parent per child should be extended to at least the first full year of each child's life. Ideally, it should be the first two years. This is already available in Sweden, Norway, Japan, Austria and Germany, among other countries. Even after the additional three weeks parent's leave provided for in the Bill, a mother will only be entitled to 31 weeks paid leave per child and a father to seven weeks. This is nowhere near enough, especially considering the fact that many crèches no longer take babies aged under one year.

Again, parents and working-class people generally want this. Another RED C survey found that 70% of people agreed that all parents should be financially supported to stay at home with their child for the first 12 months of the child's life, i.e. paid maternity and parental leave should be extended from six to 12 months.

Finally, the Bill discriminates against lone parents and their children by not allowing them to take both parent's entitlements. This is a group that has long been discriminated against in this country. The Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019, which this Bill seeks to amend, specifically states that the leave is per parent and cannot be transferred between parents. We would generally support the leave not being transferable in order to encourage more equal parenting between the genders. However, in a situation where one parent is parenting alone and there is no prospect of the other parent taking the leave the lone parent should be entitled to both parent's leave, i.e. to ten weeks' leave rather than five or should alternatively be able to nominate a second recipient other than a spouse.

This is how the situation is handled in more progressive European countries such as Sweden. In light of the latest round of shocking revelations about the mother and baby homes and forced and illegal adoptions in this country, it would be a fitting response to begin to treat lone parents and their children equally to other families in this respect.

The Bill as drafted means that a lone parent family is only entitled to five weeks parent's leave, or €1,225, whereas all other families are entitled to ten weeks or €2,450. How is that fair or equitable? How does that cherish all of the children equally, in particular in a situation where lone parents already suffer the highest levels of poverty and deprivation in this country? I hope the Government will be open to accepting amendments on those points to remove the discrimination which currently exists.

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