Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)

The entitlement to maternity benefit is contingent on entitlement to maternity leave and the legislation on it is the preserve of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The maternity benefit scheme has been significantly improved over the past four years in terms of both the duration and level of payment. In 2001, improvements were made to increase the core maternity leave which attracted an entitlement to maternity benefit from 14 weeks to 18 weeks and the period of unpaid maternity leave was also increased from four to eight weeks, bringing the total period of maternity leave to which a woman is entitled to 26 weeks. More recently, maternity provisions were amended to provide for the postponement of receipt of maternity benefit in instances where the infant is hospitalised. Similar improvements are now being provided for in section 8 of the Bill.

The estimated cost of the maternity and adoptive benefit schemes for 2005 is €137 million, an increase of €59 million since 2001. These figures represent the extent of investment and the pace of progress in these two schemes over a short period. The improvement provided in the Bill before the House will further extend the duration of entitlement to maternity benefit to 22 weeks from March. There will also be improvements in the rate of payments as the percentage to be applied to reckonable earnings has increased from 75% to 80%. That was contained in the budget and arose from our commitments in Sustaining Progress.

Entitlement to maternity and adoptive leave is provided in the 1994 and 1995 Acts. I do not know if the Senator wants me to go into further detail. I have reams of material about the usefulness of maternity benefit but I doubt if she wants me to go through it. She knows how useful it is.