Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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131. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the position regarding a survey carried out by his Department that was sent to Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas in relation to the provision of maternity leave for Members (details supplied); if he will provide the parameters of the research and results; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10369/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Provision for maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas has been under active consideration by my Department and advanced significantly in 2022.

Officials in my Department have been examining the legal and operational issues relating to the introduction of a scheme of maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas. Some aspects were identified that would benefit from the consideration and views of Members who have direct experience of the Oireachtas. These include: how constituent representation should be provided for; how membership of Oireachtas committees should be dealt with; and, more broadly, should maternity leave for Members mirror the full entitlement of employees.

At my request, I met in January 2022 with the Chair of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Senator Fiona O’Loughlin, and the Chair of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, Deputy Ivana Bacik, to discuss Maternity and Paternity Leave for Councillors and Maternity Leave for Members of the Oireachtas.

I wrote in May 2022 to Senator O’Loughlin, enclosing an information note for Members of the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus outlining the specific legal and operational issues in relation to the introduction of a scheme of maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas, set out above, which would benefit from their input. I suggested that this could be circulated to all Members of the Caucus, and that my Department would develop a confidential survey through which their views could be provided. I offered that my Department’s officials could brief a meeting of the Caucus working group examining this matter.

In June my Department circulated the information note and a survey, on the matters referred to above, to the 59 current Members of the Caucus, which was available for response until the end of July. A total of 24 responses (40.67%) to the survey were received.

On 20 September, Government approved the publication of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 which included approval of the drafting of Committee Stage amendments to, among other things, provide for maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas.

The Government is very committed to ensuring that Members of the Oireachtas can avail of maternity leave but there are constitutional and practical concerns which must be addressed before legislative proposals can be brought forward. While I had indicated my intention to bring forward legislative proposals to provide for maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas as part of Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022, owing to the urgency of the Work Life Balance Bill and the complexity of these proposals, I have decided to bring them forward separately as a stand-alone Bill.