Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Senator Terry raised the issue, dealt with under section 7, of an employer demanding that evidence of attendance should be furnished if an adoptive parent attends a class. That is very bureaucratic and mean-minded. In my company shop stewards going to a meeting obtain a notice from the union stating that they will be attending a meeting. That is adequate and we allow the person to go. This provision is small-minded. I mentioned it to the Minister before we came into the House and he replied that the employer does not have to demand such evidence. However, including it is a male, bureaucratic response.

The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Dea, dealt with the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 in this House. Its purpose was to improve the employment rights of pregnant mothers and women who had recently given birth and those who wished to resume work while breast-feeding. I thought it was nonsense to suggest that anybody could go to work while breast-feeding. How a woman could work and breast-feed a baby is beyond me. She would be exhausted. It was suggested that the woman could go home to breast-feed and return to work. That is nonsense. To do it on site would require nursery facilities in the company. As somebody else remarked, only a man would suggest a woman could breast-feed and work.