Paid maternity leave 'a luxury which society cannot afford'

HEALTH:PAYING MATERNITY leave to a working woman whose husband was able to support her was unnecessary, according to a senior civil servant at the Taoiseach's department in 1976.

Records released under the 30-year rule have revealed a note by civil servant M Stokes in response to maternity leave proposals circulated by Labour Party minister for labour Michael O’Leary in August 1976.

Unlike most of Europe, women in Ireland were not entitled to take maternity leave in Ireland in 1976.

Mr Stokes said he had “strong views” about the defensibility of paid maternity leave. While not giving unpaid leave was discrimination, he did not think “that payment for three months while having the support of a husband is a necessary step to avoid the label of discrimination”. He contended recipients “would already be supported by a wage or salary earner” and, increasingly, the event would be financially planned.

To justify his argument, Mr Stokes contrasted the working woman with a housewife. “The housewife who has no employment outside the home must continue to work until the 11th hour and resume very shortly after the 12th – with no ill-effect to herself or her family,” he wrote.

A woman working until just before maternity leave is “perfectly natural” except in rare emergency cases because “maternity is a natural function and not a malady”, Mr Stokes wrote.

He expressed surprise at seeing paid maternity leave introduced to the public service and said it was “questionable” whether the extension to the private sector “is warranted” or “at the present time, appropriate”. “It is a luxury which our society cannot afford,” he said.

The Department of Labour memorandum compared Ireland to other EEC countries. It sought to “browbeat us into following their countries by implying that we are not a modern progressive society if we don’t”, he said. The “slavish” following of other countries showed a “lack of independent Irish thought”, he wrote.

In a personal swipe at Michael O’Leary, he said the proposal “may help to make our bachelor Minister for Labour the darling of the progressive female faction”. But Mr Stokes suspected that the “over-riding body of opinion – even female opinion” would feel there were “higher priorities” for him at the present time. He enclosed a draft memorandum to return to the Department of Labour with some criticism of the Bill which dealt with issues of compulsory leave and small firms.

Mr Stokes describes as “an undue element of rigidity” the part of the Bill which provided for a compulsory six weeks’ maternity leave after the birth. This section proposed it to be an offence for the employer if a woman was allowed to return to work within six weeks of birth.

He also questioned the effect of “such generous proposals” on the small firm. “Could a small concern with maybe two or three female employees afford to pay for such an absence and for a temporary replacement?,” Mr Stokes asked.

These two watered-down criticisms appear to be the only facets of Mr Stokes’s opinion which were sent to the Department of Labour.

Another senior civil servant at the Taoiseach’s department Wally Kirwan said he had “some sympathy” with Mr Stokes’ reservations on paid maternity leave.

Mr O’Leary did not succeed in getting the Bill introduced before the coalition of Fine Gael and Labour fell in 1977.

Maternity leave was finally introduced in April 1981 under a Fianna Fáil government. Internal documents on preparations for the Maternity Protection of Employees Act 1981 are contained in the taoiseach’s State papers of 1980.

There was strong disagreement over proposals between minister for labour Gene Fitzgerald and minister for finance Michael O’Kennedy, a confidential memorandum from October 1980 summarising the views of all cabinet members on the Bill revealed.

In contrast with most of the cabinet, Mr O’Kennedy wanted to see paid maternity leave proposals reduced from 14 weeks to 13 weeks because Ireland was one of the poorest countries in the EEC. However, Mr Fitzgerald said this was an attempt to seek the lowest common denominator.

Mr O’Kennedy was “completely opposed” to the form of maternity payment scheme set out in Mr Fitzgerald’s draft memorandum and backed by minister for social welfare Michael Woods. In an analysis of both proposals, Mr Fitzgerald was highly critical of Mr O’Kennedy’s proposal and favoured Dr Woods’s scheme. The conflict between the two ministers was most likely short lived as less than two months later, in December 1980, Mr Fitzgerald replaced Mr O’Kennedy as minister for finance. The Maternity Act came into force on April 6th, 1981.