The Minister for Finance has said he is still examining if there is a way of changing the rules around the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme to allow women returning from maternity leave to become eligible for the scheme.
The women affected are those who were not receiving a top-up from their employer while getting the state maternity benefit and therefore were not on the company payroll on 29 February, as is required in the emergency legislation.
Anne O'Connell, Employment Law Solicitor, said the situation around maternity leave has caused a lot of confusion among employers and employees. "It seems that the legislation was to avoid people that may have been laid off before the legislation came in but in doing that it has impacted on a number