Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I would also like to express my sympathies to the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, to the wider party and to the family, friends and community of John Connor. It must be an awful shock to lose somebody so suddenly like that, so they have our sympathies.

I would like to welcome the deal that was backed by the DUP overnight. It was great to wake up to such news after having such high hopes over recent weeks that a deal would finally be arrived at. It was great to wake up and hear this good news. We would all love to see the Assembly and the Executive in Northern Ireland being re-established. We have to remember that all these MLAs were elected in May 2022 and they, like all of us, stood for election to represent their communities, see change, see progress and deliver. They have been hamstrung over the past almost two years in relation to that, so I look forward to seeing them getting to work, as I am sure they will do. The absence of the Assembly and the Executive meant that the communities in Northern Ireland suffered. The public services suffered, as did the public servants. Very recently, we saw how they felt the impact of that. Let us hope that this news today will see a new dawn for Northern Ireland so we can move ahead and see some progress. I am sure the Government here will offer all the support it can with the obvious teething issues that will occur over the next couple of weeks. We look forward to a First Minister and a deputy First Minister being elected.

I wish to raise the issue of the January bonuses and the double payment that 1.3 million people received this week. This is really welcome. It was part of the budget package to help people with the cost of living. People such as pensioners, carers, people with disabilities, lone parents and people on low incomes received a double payment this week. That is really welcome. It is a huge boost for them and their communities, because we know people who receive social welfare spend it in their local communities. This helps support local businesses. Yet, there is one glaringly obvious gap in the list of many recipients who will receive this, namely, people who receive maternity benefit. It is often the only income that women who are on maternity leave will have. Quite often, many employers do not top up that payment. It is a very vulnerable time for women, both personally and financially. As we know from the statistics, there is an increase in domestic violence and coercive control during pregnancy and immediately after giving birth.I think a double payment of maternity benefit would really benefit people. It would give them a lot more stability and a lot more financial freedom. It is a pity the Minister did not include that. Will the Acting Leader write to the Minister for Social Protection and ask for maternity benefit to be included if the bonus payment is to be repeated? The double child benefit payment was very welcome and will help this cohort, but this is one big gap and I would like to see it corrected.