Social Welfare Act, 1991

Standardisation of maternity provisions.

21.—(1) The Principal Act is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution for subsection (2) (inserted by section 9 of the Social Welfare (Amendment) Act, 1981 ) of section 24 of the following subsection:

“(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the period for which maternity allowance is payable shall be the period of maternity leave to which a woman is entitled by virtue of section 8 of the Maternity Protection of Employees Act, 1981 (including any extension of that period by virtue of section 12 of that Act).”,

(b) the substitution for subsection (5) (inserted by section 9 of the Social Welfare (Amendment) Act, 1981 ) of section 24 of the following subsection:

“(5) For the purposes of subsection (2), where the employment ceases (whether due to the death of the employer or otherwise) during the period of maternity leave, the woman shall continue to be treated as if the event which caused the cesser of employment had not occurred.”,

(c) the substitution in subsection (1) (inserted by section 10 of the No. 2 Act of 1987) of section 25 for “section 24 (2) (a)” of “section 24 (2)”,

(d) the deletion of subsection (1A) (inserted by section 10 of the No. 2 Act of 1987) of section 25,

(e) the substitution for section 26 of the following section:

“Rate of allowance.

26.—(1) Subject to this Act, the weekly rate of maternity allowance shall be an amount equal to—

(a) 70 per cent. of the reckonable weekly earnings of the woman to whom the allowance is payable in the income tax year prescribed for the purposes of this section, or

(b) 70 per cent. of such amount as may be prescribed as the average reckonable weekly earnings of women in that year,

whichever is the greater.

(2) The percentage specified in subsection (1) may be varied by regulations having regard to such matters as—

(a) movements in the annual average earnings of women, and

(b) the imposition or variation of statutory deductions from or charges on earnings.

(3) In this section ‘reckonable weekly earnings’ means the average amount of reckonable earnings received in a week up to such limit as stands prescribed for the purpose of section 73.”,

(f) the deletion of section 26A (inserted by section 5 of the No. 2 Act of 1985) and section 26B (inserted by section 11 of the Act of 1986).

(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, a woman who becomes entitled to maternity allowance payable by virtue of section 24 (2) (b) of the Principal Act before the commencement of that subsection, shall continue to be entitled to such allowance until the end of that period of entitlement to maternity allowance.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders and different days may be so appointed for different provisions of that subsection.