Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of Senators this afternoon have mentioned workers' rights, pay and conditions and maternity leave. It strikes me that there is one category that is often forgotten when debating such matters, namely, councillors and members of local government. Because they are not employees they do not benefit from the usual employment rights such as the minimum wage and maternity, paternity and parental leave. This was brought home to me very acutely last night when I attended the July meeting of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, as my former seat on it was being filled. Another seat in Blackrock was also being filled. One of my colleagues, Councillor Lorraine Hall, was there with her two and a half month old son because she does not benefit from any form of leave in respect of having just had a baby. She does not benefit either from any remote meeting provisions that might be provided to councillors around the country. Something that has very much come to light during Covid is the fact that councils physically have to meet, and that is the case with these Houses as well. In terms of what we can do in this House for local government, there are simple legislative solutions that we could put into law to provide for maternity, paternity and parental leave for councillors, as well as remote meeting facilities for councillors who for whatever reason are not able to attend meetings or for whom it is not advisable that they would attend meetings. That has come to light in particular during the Covid crisis. In my eleven years in local government quite a number of councillors had babies while sitting on the council and many of those babies sat in the chamber with us. As a House, we now have an opportunity to do something about it. I hope we go the full distance in terms of having nearly five years in which to legislate. The next time we get a local government Bill into this House, if they are not already contained in it, I hope that we will take the opportunity to put into it clear provisions to provide for such issues as maternity leave, paternity leave and other ordinary employment rights that every other worker in the economy expects as a matter of right and that Members will support such a Bill wholeheartedly.