Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 288: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, further to the announcement in budget 2006 of the extension of maternity leave, when the change takes effect; if same will apply to all mothers of infants who are born after 1 March 2006 regardless of when they start their maternity leave; if same will just apply to mothers who start their maternity leave after 1 March 2006; the way in which he proposes to legislate for the change; if mothers who start their maternity leave in February, 2006 or before but who give birth on or after 1 March 2006 are not denied the extra leave entitlement in the interests of fairness and prenatal good health and practice. [39494/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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In his Budget Statement on 7 December 2005, the Minister for Finance announced increases to paid maternity leave to 22 weeks in March 2006 and to 26 weeks in March 2007 and unpaid maternity leave to 12 weeks with effect from March 2006 and to 16 weeks with effect from March 2007. In the interests of maintaining the parity of entitlements between adopting and natural mothers, similar arrangements will apply to adoptive leave. I intend to implement the increases by way of secondary legislation, and heads of draft orders have already been transmitted to the Attorney General for formal early drafting.

The Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004 and the Adoptive Leave Acts 1995 and 2005 provide that draft orders made under them must be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and a resolution approving the drafts passed by each House. Regarding maternity leave, while I cannot pre-empt the decision of the Oireachtas regarding this matter, I expect to be in a position to make an order on 1 February 2006, with the consent of the Ministers for Finance and Social and Family Affairs, giving effect to the increases to employees who commence their maternity leave or additional maternity leave on or after 1 March 2006 and 1 March 2007, as appropriate.

Entitlement to paid and unpaid maternity leave is subject to giving the employer at least four weeks' notice of the intention to take leave. It means, for example, that an employee who commences paid maternity leave on 1 March 2006 must have notified her employer of her intention to take paid maternity leave at least four weeks before the commencement of that leave. In the case of an employee who commences the additional unpaid maternity leave on 1 March 2006, that person may already have commenced paid maternity leave from early November 2005. Again, the employee must have notified her employer of her intention to take unpaid maternity leave at least four weeks before the commencement of that leave. Those arrangements are in line with those that applied when previous increases were implemented in 2001.