Seanad debates

Tuesday, 2 December 2003

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003: Committee Stage.

 

2:30 pm

Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I would need some time to read carefully through the Minister of State's reply. That is the difficulty we face when we deal with amendments and Ministers provide their reasons for accepting or rejecting them.

It still makes sense for a woman who gets sick during maternity leave to postpone rather than terminate her leave. The legislation is behind the times. The Minister of State has addressed the recommendations in the report of the working group on the review and improvement of the maternity protection legislation. When this legislation was introduced, the Department of Health and Children's national breastfeeding policy recommended that all women should be encouraged to breastfeed for at least four months. However, since then maternity leave has been extended to 18 weeks paid leave and eight weeks unpaid leave.

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