A chara, – Currently maternity benefit is paid to women on leave from employment and covered by PRSI. The aim, as I was informed, is to give working woman the chance to have a family without being at a complete financial disadvantage.
However, students can have the correct number of PRSI credits but are ineligible for this stipend.
An increase of people returning to higher education to upskill and retrain in face of both the economic climate and impetus of Ireland’s “smart economy” results in an older generation of full-time students. This places restraints on masters and PhD students, while the hope is for those graduates to contribute substantially to our society. Women already suffer gender bias throughout their career progression but limiting their options as to when to have a family further intensifies the struggle to compete for employment.
Can this system not be reworked? – Yours, etc,