Maternal Mental Health Supports: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-11
============================================================

Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I want people to be in no doubt that this is an area of significant priority for me as the Minister of State for mental health. The programme of work under way and the investment we will make will continue to show this. As I told Senator Harmon outside, this is a really good and decent motion. The Department of Health and I do not oppose motions just for the sake of it because it is Government and Opposition. I am really looking forward to working with the Senators on this to deliver the motion.
The only place where it does not fall within our remit is in relation to the maternity benefit of up to 12 months. I am thinking back to my 32-year-old son, Jack. I was self-employed at the time and I was back in work after four weeks, so things have changed quite a lot and for the better. I thank the Acting Chairperson for the forbearance. I have to leave at about 2.50 p.m. I am sorry I will not be able to be here to hear everyone. I already had to juggle a meeting I had at 2 p.m. to be here, so I apologise in advance.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-11