Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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243. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the extension of maternity leave for premature births will only apply to those births after 1 October 2017; her plans for an extension of the rights to those already on maternity leave; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44415/17]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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245. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to extend the maternity leave and benefit for mothers of premature babies who are currently on maternity leave but whose children were born before 1 October 2017. [44425/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 243 and 245 together.

On 3 October 2017 I, together with my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan T.D., announced increased maternity leave and maternity benefit for mothers whose babies are born prematurely.

Under the new arrangements, in addition to the current 26 weeks of paid maternity leave a mother will be entitled to an additional period of maternity leave and benefit where her baby is born prematurely, where she meets the ordinary qualifying criteria for the schemes. The additional period will commence at the end of the standard 26 week period of paid maternity leave. The extended period to be added will be the number of weeks from the baby's actual date of birth up to two weeks before the expected date of confinement which would have been the 37th week of the pregnancy, at which point the current entitlement to 26 weeks leave and benefit would normally begin.

The Government decided that the additional maternity leave and benefit would be available for mothers of premature babies born on or after 1 October 2017 and my Department is now working to make sure the necessary arrangements are put in place to meet that deadline. There are no plans to extend the new arrangements to mothers of premature babies born before that date.