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FORMER JUSTICE MINISTER Nora Owen has said she does not think the public would be “grateful” if a new minister were appointed to replace the current Justice Minister when she has her baby.
The former Fine Gael politician said Helen McEntee will face criticism from the public for taking leave, despite having the right to take time to care for her son.
He added that McEntee’s next absence would be “giving someone, somewhere, a lot of headaches.”
Owen also said it was “extraordinary” that a constitutional amendment appeared to be needed to ensure that public officials, including McEntee, can take maternity leave.
McEntee will become the first cabinet minister to give birth while in office. The baby will be born in May and McEntee intends to take a six-month leave.
Today, public office holders must claim sick leave when they take time off to have and care for their newborn baby.
Owen, who was Minister of Justice from 1994 to 1997, told the Palestinian Authority news agency: “There is the whole question of what happens when someone like Helen [McEntee] you go and say it’s going to take your full six months.
“You will have to pay because you have the right to be paid. But do you put someone else in and pay another full ministerial salary?
“Does it raise the profile of a lesser minister and place him in a higher ministry? Do they get the extra money because they pay less? And then you appoint a temporary junior minister?
Nora Owen as Minister of Justice outside 10 Downing Street in London in 1996
Source: Michael Stephens via PA Images
Owen added: “I don’t think the public is grateful, I think, that a new full-fledged minister is appointed at a full salary at a time when people are really struggling.
“I imagine this is an area that is giving someone, somewhere, a lot of headaches.”
She added: “I admire her [McEntee] because it will receive criticism.
“Someone will say, ‘Oh, she’s getting her salary, she should be there.’ She will receive her salary the same as any other person on leave when they are away. “
Owen said it was a “shame” that a referendum might be necessary before TD women, senators and councilors receive maternity rights, and that he is “concerned” that more women are not entering political life.
Owen appears in Proud to Serve: The Voices of the Women of Cumann na nGaedheal and Fine Gael 1922-1992.
Fine Gael celebrates International Women’s Day with the release of a reprint of the book by Maria Hegarty and Martina Murray.
Granddaughter of Michael Collins, Owen was elected to the Dáil Eireann in 1981 and served as TD for Dublin North for two decades.
When she was first elected to the Dáil, she had three young children and was one of the few TD women.
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In the book, she recounts how after winning her first seat in 1981, a journalist was heard reading her article while calling her newspaper: “An anonymous suburban housewife just won a surprise victory in Dublin North.”
She said she had to deal with men who referred to her as a housewife throughout her career, using it as a “way to put people down or put her back in her box.”
She also said she had been “boiled over” numerous times when male TDs passed off their ideas as their own.
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