Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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1228. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the estimated annual cost of increasing maternity benefit to €300 a week. [34601/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Maternity Benefit is a payment made for 26 weeks to employed and self-employed pregnant women who satisfy certain pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions in order to avoid the need for them to work pre and post-delivery of their baby. The original scheme was introduced in 1970 and was extended to include self-employed mothers with effect from June 1997.

In 2017 it is estimated that my Department will spend approximately €266 million on maternity benefit in respect of an average of 22,000 recipients per week.

The estimated full year cost of increasing maternity benefit to from the current rate of €235 per week to €300 per week would be approximately €73.4 million per annum. This estimate is subject to change over the coming months in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2017.