Childers welcomes victory on better maternity and paternity leave

Posted by Bronwen Maher on October 20, 2010 at 03:17 PM

Labour MEP Nessa Childers has strongly welcomed today's vote on maternity and paternity leave at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, which she had encouraged other Irish MEPs to support.
 
MEPs, against heavy business lobbying, backed legislation for 20 weeks full pay maternity leave and 2 weeks full pay paternity leave.
 
Speaking from Strasbourg, Childers said "I wrote to my colleagues in the European Parliament last night urging them to support this legislation. Today MEPs have looked beyond the big business lobbyists who have bombarded our offices with emails in recent days, and thought of ordinary working people back home who can now look forward to a huge increase in the maternity and paternity benefit that they receive."
 
Childers has also strongly refuted the notion that this legislation will put further strain on Irish businesses, describing the claims as "both exaggerated and grossly short-sighted."
 
"The Irish government has claimed that it will cost more than €300m to implement this legislation. However, I questioned this statistic and discovered that it doesn't take into account that more than 50% of Irish women are already afforded full pay by their employers, which immediately slashes their figure by more than half.
 
"The costs become even more minimal when we consider that the legislation will provide for more women to remain in the workforce and contribute to the economy. In fact, the costs of implementing this legislation will be fully covered across Europe if only 1.4 per cent more women are able to enter the workforce and thus increase the size of our economies."
 
Labour's representative in Ireland East continued "This legislation will allow women to stay in the workforce, while not worrying about income or their post-natal relationship with their children.
 
"Today's result also goes some way to addressing the problem of gender balance in Ireland. Current Irish legislation does not provide fathers with any time off to bond with their children and presumes this to be an exclusively female consideration. Sadly, some aspects of Irish law have remained completely untouched by the modernisation which occurred over the last twenty years."
 
Childers added "As representatives of the European people, MEPs have also today addressed one of the most serious problems facing them- an acutely ageing population, which is beginning to put a serious strain on both our health services and our workforce.
 
"Instead of penalising women for having children, we should support them and provide them the opportunity to balance work and family life. Ireland's low-ranking maternity benefit was already slashed by 4.1% in the budget last year, with many more cuts no doubt ahead. This legislation ring-fences maternity benefit as one social and economic tool which will not disappear as a result of Fianna Fail's gross mismanagement of the Irish economy."
 
The legislation will now be referred to the European Council, where it will have to be passed by national ministers before being implemented.
 
Childers concluded "We must now negotiate with national ministers to make these improvements a reality."

Permanent link | Comments (0) |