The Taoiseach confirmed to the Dáil that the government would facilitate her maternity leave.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will take six months paid maternity leave beginning on 30 April, the Dáil has been told.
Speaking on Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said McEntee would remain a member of government without a portfolio and Heather Humphreys would temporarily assume responsibility for the Justice portfolio from 1 May.
Humphreys will also retain her current portfolio of Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands.
Hildegarde Naughton will be assigned a junior minister role in the Department of Justice and Minister of State James Brown will also remain in Justice.
McEntee is expecting a baby in May and is the first Cabinet Minister to be pregnant in office.
However, there are no legal provisions to allow female TDs to take maternity leave.
Speaking earlier this week, the Taoiseach said McEntee’s maternity leave would be facilitated and said the situation “will become a catalyst for wider change”.
McEntee announced earlier this year she would take time off after the birth of her baby and would try to secure maternity leave for politicians.
“I am going to take maternity leave. I am going to take time off [for] my first child. I do want to take that time, but we do need to identify a mechanism in which that can happen,” McEntee told Today with Claire Byrne in January.
“It’s important that we set that example and the fact that there is no provision there in this day and age, really it’s simply not acceptable.”
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