Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to an issue I raised previously with the Tánaiste, which is the poor rate of maternity benefit in Ireland compared to other EU states or other OECD states. In Ireland, the average proportion of previous earnings that maternity benefit accounts for is 25.2%. It is one of the lowest rates in the OECD and the EU. During the pandemic, people were coming off pandemic payments of €330 per week and being reduced to €250 because they had just had a child. That is a penalisation of women for having children.

There will be a proposal coming to the Cabinet soon to realign unemployment benefits with previous payments and with what people were being paid before they became unemployed. Will there be a similar alignment of maternity benefit with average pay? People's requirement to pay their mortgage goes on. Many families are now two-salary families to pay the mortgage. It will be a disincentive. Would the Tánaiste, at the very least, support this being addressed?

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