Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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2046. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full year cost of extending maternity leave and maternity benefit for mothers of premature babies (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28047/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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According to figures from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO), over 4,500 babies are born prematurely in Ireland every year, which in 2014 was 6.6 percent of all births.

Using this figure of 4,500 premature births per annum, the estimated cost for each additional week of paid maternity leave is approximately €1 million per week.

However, this figure does not take cognisance of the fact that maternity benefit is only payable where the mother has the required number of PRSI contributions. To put this in context there were 65,000 births in 2015 but only 44,453 claims for maternity benefit which equates to about 68% of births qualifying for maternity benefit. If the same percentage is applied to the number of premature births approximately 3,060 mothers of premature babies would be expected to qualify for any additional maternity benefit. This would cost approximately €0.7 million per week.

If the duration of maternity benefit is extended in this way there may be pressure to increase the duration of benefit for all mothers – in that case, based on an annual cohort of 45,000 claimants, each additional week would cost approximately €10 million per week.

It should be noted that there are also costs to the Exchequer as these estimates do not include the costs of salary top-ups for public/civil servants.