Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

This arose in the Dáil and I wrote to Deputy Moynihan-Cronin as a result, giving her my interpretation of the relevant section, section 10. It states that if a woman dies after the birth of a child then the father is entitled to a certain amount of time off. The Bill goes on to state that if the mother dies before the expiry of the 16th week following the week of her confinement, the period ends at the end of the 16th week. In other words, if she dies in the 15th week then the maternity leave ends at the end of the 16th week, one week later.

It goes on to state that if the mother dies at any time after the expiry of the 16th week, when one is into additional maternity leave, the period ends at the end of the 24th week. Deputy Moynihan-Cronin was rightly concerned that one could have a situation where, if the mother dies in week 15, the father would have only one week's paid leave; if she dies in week 17, he has seven weeks' unpaid leave. In the first case he will have one week paid leave plus the other eight weeks. Section 4 states that if a father takes subsection (1)(a) leave — 16 weeks minus whatever he decides — he shall, if he so wishes, be entitled to further leave from his employment for a maximum period of eight consecutive weeks commencing immediately after the end of his subsection (1)(a) leave or eight weeks, all or part of which is postponed if he wants to postpone it because of illness or whatever.

The position is clear. I wrote to Deputy Moynihan-Cronin who should have received my correspondence yesterday evening.