First and foremost it gives Minister McEntee and her husband Paul some peace of mind as they focus on raising their first child.
But it does not resolve the ministerial maternity-leave quandary for any future female Cabinet minister who becomes pregnant while serving at the highest level of Government.
The Taoiseach acknowledged legislative or even constitutional changes will be necessary to ensure other female ministers, or indeed TDs, are faced with a workable situation. “We want to make sure that having a family is in no way in conflict with pursuing a career in public life,” Mr Martin said.
The constitutional requirement for the Cabinet to be made up of strictly no more than 15 ministers is the main stumbling block to introducing a more permanent solution for ministerial maternity leave.
Call for paid maternity leave for all women in politics
Updated / Friday, 12 Mar 2021
15:21
Female politicians have called for wide-reaching legal and constitutional reforms to ensure all women in politics are guaranteed paid maternity leave after the Government confirmed Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will take six months leave from April.
Coalition and Opposition politicians said the welcome decision in support of Minister McEntee should be mirrored in all levels of politics - with one TD saying she was asked for a sick cert when she had a baby shortly after being elected to the Dáil.
Yesterday, Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told the Dáil that Minister McEntee, who is pregnant with her first baby, would be allowed to take six months of paid maternity leave from 30 April.
Sexual education must be embedded in our school system
12th March 2021 - Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, TD
A new comprehensive programme of relationship and sexual education must be embedded in our school system for children from early age if we are to break the endemic of sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland, a Fine Gael TD has said.
Dún Laoghaire Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was speaking as the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality is meeting tomorrow (Saturday) to discuss the issue of gender based violence and will work to agree to a ballot paper on care.
Deputy Carroll MacNeill has said, “In recent days, there has been a renewed discussion about gender based violence following the tragic suspected murder of Sarah Everard, who disappeared last week as she walked home from a friend’s house in London.