“I only missed one meeting following the birth of my daughter.. but it’s one thing to show up to meetings, but if you want to do it right - which I do - you have to put the work into it. As a new mother, I think any new parent will tell you, in the first weeks after your child is born you just don’t have that time,” Ms O’Byrne said. While fellow Green Party Councillors offered to help with her Firhouse-Bohernabreena constituency work for as long as she needed, Ms O’Byrne agreed a more formal recognition of maternity leave was required within politics rather than the goodwill of colleagues.