Varadkar accused of ignoring maternity benefit delays

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ignored delays in maternity benefit payments for three months when he was minister for social protection until the issue was highlighted in the media, the Dáil has heard.

Sinn Féin social protection spokesman John Brady claimed Mr Varadkar was in the middle of the Fine Gael leadership campaign.

Mr Varadkar apologised to the women affected by the delays when the issue became public in May.

Mr Brady claimed Mr Varadkar knew about the problems three months earlier when warnings were issued about unsustainable staffing level.

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Quoting documents released under freedom of information Mr Brady said the principal officer with responsibility for maternity benefits had emailed the assistant secretary general in the department in February.

The official warned that six new staff were needed immediately and unless staffing levels were improved they would remain in a situation where to many maternity benefits would be paid after women started their maternity leave.

Claims pending

The Wicklow TD said 1,300 women were on maternity leave without any payment and a further 2,850 claims were pending.

Mr Brady said “the Taoiseach might have been too focused on his hate campaign against other social welfare recipients to pay attention to the issue affecting thousands of mother who were entitled to their benefit and were not being paid”.

But Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald said the issue had been dealt with because the department recognised there was a problem and action had been taken.

She said the Taoiseach clearly took action “because the processing of maternity benefit payments is now up to date and claims from mothers going on maternity leave are processed as they start their leave”.

Ms Fitzgerald said the message she wanted to get out to pregnant women is that “those applications are being dealt with immediately and they will have their payment immediately”.

She added that about 18,750 women are in receipt of maternity benefit at present.

She pointed out that the department acknowledged delays in processing the payments and apologised, which were temporary and in part due to a new IT system which took some time to become fully operational.