Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. First, I thank my colleagues on the administrative panel for bringing this motion before us. I also thank the Minister of State for delivering for city and county councillors throughout this country over the past year and half in government. I appreciate the lengths gone to to recognise the value they bring to local government, and we made their pay almost a living wage.

We must be realistic. It is all very well saying we would love to see these recommendations realised but we must be realistic in telling women what this job entails and the demands put on one's life. When in politics, people are open to the public 24-7. We might not like to be but, unfortunately, we are. It is all about trying to protect one's seat and position. I recently had an illness and I was only out of theatre before I was online responding to people. We are all very conscious of the role we have as public representatives but we do not give ourselves time out to even recuperate after operations. It is really important the recommendations put forward today, particularly the work of the AILG, is listened to by the Minister of State. He should take on board these eight recommendations.

I will read some of them for the Minister of State. The first is there should be, "Amendment to section 18 of the Local Government Act 2001 to provide for maternity leave as an excused absence from a local authority and where elected members can take maternity leave without the necessity of a resolution from the elected council and therefore it will eliminate any risk of an elected member having deemed to have resigned [the] seat". The second recommendation is a "Solution to provide paid maternity leave for elected members would be to provide for no reduction in our members' remuneration payment for the first six months of absence for maternity/adoptive/paternity leave, a 50% reduction in [the] payment for the subsequent six months and no payment thereafter up to the maximum of 18 months' absence".

The third recommendation is that, "The provision of secretarial support has been identified as a necessary aid for members taking maternity leave". The fourth is that, "Consideration needs to be given to exempting the attendance rule requirement for payment of the annual expenses allowance for members on maternity leave to ensure payment of this allowance to fund the cost of additional administrative/secretarial support". The fifth recommendation is, "Examining meeting times, duration and appropriate flexibility with scheduling meetings to accommodate elected members on maternity leave". The sixth is, "Continued facility of remote attendance and voting at statutory meetings". This was absolutely crucial during the pandemic and it would be a very welcome move to continue that.

The sixth recommendation is that "Consideration [...] be given for the introduction of a voting pairing system". This works really well in here and there is absolutely no reason it cannot work in local government. It is something we should really push for. The next recommendation is, "The option of a substitute/replacement system would be desirable for a member who would wish to avail of it in order to take a complete break while on maternity leave". That could present problems but I do not believe it will. The public are very forgiving and understanding of what it takes to make it into local government. I know this best of all because I ran in two areas but I could only take one seat. Therefore, the person in the second seat was somebody I nominated. The people trusted me to be able to put somebody into the position who would work for them in my absence. It can work if we have the right person and the seat can be handed back after the time is up.

We recently saw the introduction of expenses for councillors of €5,200. Some of the councillors have wondered if they could use some of that for childcare. All the criteria for drawing down that allowance have not been published.

Babies having parents around in the first year of their lives is really important. The possibility of maternity and paternity leave is really important for young babies and children. It is really important for us to look at best practice across the EU. We should do whatever that best practice is. Could we consider compassionate leave for people with miscarriages or stillbirths, as this is important? Perhaps that could be sorted out in some part of the legislation. Some people go full term but lose their baby very soon after birth or have a late miscarriage.

We must make this process more family-friendly. We must ensure we can get young people into politics and we want to keep them there. I have seen so many young women coming in over the years and they are gone. I might see them breastfeeding a child and six months later they do not run again in local elections.We want those young women to stay, so we need to create an environment that will be good for them. We need to pay them right and ensure they have the appropriate resources behind them, and I think the Minister of State will do that. He will review this in a few months and ensure these recommendations are met.