Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I thank everyone who contributed to the debate and welcome their contributions. Senator Terry raised a question about section 5 regarding additional maternity leave being terminated in the event of illness. My advice is that the provision to allow an employee to transfer, with the consent of the employer, from additional maternity leave to sick leave in the event of the woman's illness does not contravene the pregnant workers directive. The mother remains fully entitled to 18 paid weeks maternity leave. This cannot be terminated. The Bill proposes that the employee may choose to transfer from unpaid additional maternity leave to sick leave and that choice will, obviously, be made when it is to her own advantage. That is the intention of the section.

Senator Terry and others raised the question of the four month period given for breastfeeding. At the time of the review of the 1994 Act the working group recommended a period of four months. We are going on that recommendation. However, a resolution on infant and young children's nutrition was adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2002. It approved the World Health Organisation's global strategy on infant and young child feeding which recommends, "As a global public health recommendation infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life to achieve optimum growth, development and health." In the light of this recommendation the Department of Health and Children is reviewing its breastfeeding strategy which may well have implications for amending the Bill on Committee Stage.

Senator Terry also said there was nothing in the Bill to oblige employers to provide breastfeeding facilities. The legal position is that an employer is obliged to provide a breastfeeding facility where that will impose no more than a nominal cost on him or her. That is not the Government's decision. It is a decision taken by the Supreme Court under Article 43 of the Constitution which protects private property. The Supreme Court has ruled that one can only place social obligations in the public interest on private property owners where no more than nominal cost will be incurred. I can get details of the judgment for the Senator if she wishes.

Senator Terry is right when she points out that the reduction of working hours is not defined. It will be defined in the regulations which will shortly follow the Bill. This is one of those matters which must be provided for in some detail by way of regulation. The regulations will be complex and it is in them that the nuances will be worked out.