A chara, – Having recently had a beautiful baby girl I was delighted to be able to “get something back” from the government in the form of maternity benefit. However, I was very aggrieved to find that for self- employed people there are no “keep-in-touch” days, as there are in many other countries. In the UK and Australia for example, there are up to 10 keep-in-touch days.
I am a self-employed sole trader and while on a 12-week maternity leave it was extremely difficult not attend to business matters. However, I was advised by the Department of Social and Family Affairs advised that once you are back at work your maternity leave ceases. How can this be justified when one is struggling to raise a newborn baby and keep a business afloat and employees in jobs? Having never once looked for any financial assistance from the State prior to this period I felt extremely let down.
While I was off the business was operating at negligible profit, since the cost of bringing in another professional to cover me reduced the profit margin substantially. Why are there no provisions for woman running businesses to be entitled to (keep-in-touch) days? Or why can maternity leave not be transferred to the father as paternity leave if the mother has to return to work immediately, as in many cases?
At a time when more and more women are business owners and, quite frankly, sustaining the country, I think it is only fair for the State to respect the importance and support post- natal female employers in maintaining jobs, continuing payment of employers portion of PRSI for those employees, continuing service to the public, continuing payments to Revenue in the form of VAT, while juggling the demands of a newborn baby. – Is mise,