In the run-up to the birth of his son via surrogacy, John Hickey inquired at work about securing additional leave.
“I asked the question but got back the answer I knew I was going to get ... There is no surrogacy leave in the Civil Service,” says Hickey.
He had just six weeks’ annual leave and two of parent’s leave, while his husband, Shaun, who is self-employed, was also under some pressure to return to work.
At an annual conference of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants on Friday, Hickey proposed a motion on the issue, hoping it might set wheels in motion to change the approach to surrogacy.
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His aim is to see the introduction of leave on a par with that currently available under maternity or adoption provisions. For maternity leave, mothers get 26 weeks’ paid leave plus 16 weeks unpaid. The same amount is offered to one parent of an adopted child.
At the conference on Friday, Hickey’s motion was passed.
Surrogacy is an arrangement, sometimes involving payment, where a woman carries and gives birth to a baby on behalf of another person or couple.
“Surrogacy is a thing ... and it’s not going away,” says Hickey, a senior civil servant with Revenue from Ballina-Killaloe on the border between Tipperary and Limerick. “Maternity leave is rightly there for the bonding of children with the mother and for families to support the child’s development,” he says.
“When you have a child through surrogacy that same requirement for bonding, for supporting the child, meeting their developmental goals, going to the public health nurse during the week, all of those things, they are all still there. The leave should match,” he says.
It does match in some parts of the public service, including a number of universities, and some private-sector firms, he says.
Hickey and his husband had to travel to Bogotá, Colombia, for the birth of their son Arlo and to bring him home. There were administrative complications: emergency travel documents had to be secured there and a High Court order for guardianship was needed here. These requirements are rooted in official efforts to prevent child trafficking.
He says they were lucky to secure a place in a local creche, though State supports only apply after the baby is 24 weeks old, the time when paid maternity leave would normally be ending, he says. Hickey has a sense that he, Shaun and Arlo are missing out somewhat when compared to other families.
They are not unique, he says, noting that when the motion was discussed at a Revenue union branch meeting there was another family affected who had a child through surrogacy a few years ago.
The Minister for Children last November said the Programme for Government commits to introducing paid surrogacy leave. Norma Foley said officials in her department were examining how best to implement this commitment.
She said the father of a child born through surrogacy can qualify for nine weeks of paid parent’s leave and two weeks’ paternity leave if he is declared the biological father.
