Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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325. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to report on the maternity in situ scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3347/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Local Government (Maternity Protection and Other Measures for Members of Local Authorities) Act 2022 was signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins on 21 December 2022. The Act amends the Maternity Protection Act 1994 to make available maternity leave entitlements to local authority elected members. It also amends the Local Government Act 2001, first, to provide that a casual vacancy in the membership of a local authority does not arise when a member of the local authority is absent on maternity leave and, second, to permit, in certain circumstances, a person to take temporarily the place of a member of a local authority who is absent from the local authority for an extended period. The Act commenced on enactment.

Additionally, as part of a broader range of maternity-related supports, my Department is currently finalising the drafting of regulations which will introduce an allowance for the engagement of administrative support, on a part-time basis, to be available to female elected members who have recently given birth but who chose not to co-opt a temporary substitute.