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.
Updated: 4 Feb 2021, 14:15
IRELAND is in the grips of a “hidden epidemic” of mental health issues being caused by the Covid-19 crisis with children as young as 16 taking their own life, the Dail has heard.
The Dail heard that the HSE’s mental health website has seen an increase in hits by more than 490 per cent over the past year with one in six people in Ireland visiting the online support.
3
Sinn Fein TD Paul Donnelly told the Dail of one family s shocking experience with mental health services during the pandemicCredit: Paddy Cummins - The Sun Dublin
3
Some 28 residents in mental health services have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic beganCredit: PA:Press Association