Maternity leave and Maternity Benefit in Ireland 2026

If you are pregnant and working in Ireland you have the right to 26 weeks of maternity leave, paid by the State through Maternity Benefit, plus 16 more weeks unpaid. Your job is protected while you are away and you return to it afterwards. This guide sets out when the leave can start, the notice you must give, the benefit and how to claim it, what your employer has to do, and what happens if the employer tries to end your job during or around the leave.

Everything here comes from the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 to 2022 and the Department of Social Protection's Maternity Benefit scheme. The figures are the ones in force at the date this guide was verified.

The 26 weeks and the 16 weeks

Maternity leave has two parts.

The 26 weeks are the entitlement every employee has, however short their service and whatever their hours. There is no minimum service for the leave itself. The PRSI conditions for the benefit are separate and are dealt with below.

The 16 weeks are optional. You choose whether to take them, and you can take fewer than 16. Once you have started the additional leave you cannot normally cut it short to return early unless your employer agrees. If you become ill during the additional leave you can ask the employer to treat the rest of it as sick leave instead, which matters because Illness Benefit may then be available; see Illness Benefit after sick pay.

When maternity leave can start

The Act sets a window. Your leave must start at least 2 weeks before the end of the week in which your baby is due, and no more than 16 weeks before that week. Inside that window the start date is your choice.

Most people start as late as they are allowed, two weeks before the due date, so that as much as possible of the 26 weeks falls after the birth. If the baby arrives early, before you have started your leave, the leave starts on the date of birth and the full 26 weeks still run from then. If the baby arrives late and you have already used the two weeks before the due date, the leave is extended so that you still have at least four weeks after the birth.

The leave planner turns a due date into the earliest and latest start dates, the end of the 26 weeks, the end of the 16 weeks, and the notice deadlines for each.

Notice and the medical certificate

You must tell your employer in writing at least four weeks before your leave starts, and give a medical certificate confirming the pregnancy and the expected week of birth. A letter or email is enough; there is no statutory form. Keep a copy and keep the employer's acknowledgement.

If you want to take the additional 16 weeks, you give separate written notice at least four weeks before the end of the 26 weeks. If you decide against it later, tell the employer in writing as soon as you can.

You must also give at least four weeks' written notice of your intention to return to work, saying the date you will be back. That notice is a condition of the right to return, so do not skip it. Diary the dates: the planner lists them.

Maternity Benefit: €299 a week and how to claim

Maternity Benefit is paid by the Department of Social Protection, not your employer, for the 26 weeks of maternity leave. The rate from January 2026 is €299 a week. It is paid weekly into your bank account. The benefit is treated as taxable income, so Revenue adjusts your tax credits, but it is not subject to USC or PRSI.

To qualify you need enough PRSI contributions at the right class (Class A for most employees, Class S for the self-employed) in a tax year the Department treats as relevant. The exact contribution numbers are on the Department's Maternity Benefit page, linked in the sources, and only the Department can confirm whether you meet them. The acronyms here are explained in the glossary.

To claim:

1. Apply online through MyWelfare with a verified MyGovID account, in advance of the leave. The Department asks for the claim some weeks before the leave starts and its page gives the current lead time.
2. Your employer completes a certificate confirming the date your leave begins and that you are entitled to it. Ask HR for it early.
3. The Department confirms the claim in writing and payment begins when the leave starts.

If you are refused on contribution grounds, the leave itself is unaffected: you still have 26 weeks off work and the right to return. You simply have no benefit for them. Supplementary Welfare Allowance may be available as a means-tested fallback.

Employer top-ups

Nothing in the Act requires your employer to pay you while you are on maternity leave. What many employers do is pay the difference between Maternity Benefit and your normal salary for some or all of the 26 weeks. This is a contractual benefit, so look in your contract, the staff handbook or any collective agreement. Public servants, teachers and HSE staff generally have full pay for the 26 weeks under their own schemes; see teachers and SNAs and HSE staff.

A top-up scheme usually requires you to claim Maternity Benefit and have it paid to the employer, or deducted from your salary, so that the employer pays the balance. Some schemes attach conditions, such as returning to work for a period afterwards or repaying the top-up if you do not. Those conditions are contractual and have to be clear in writing before you rely on them.

Your job while you are away

The Act protects your employment during maternity leave and additional maternity leave. Your contract continues, your service is unbroken, and you are treated as if you had been at work for every purpose except pay. Annual leave keeps accruing for the whole period, and public holidays that fall during the leave are added to your entitlement. The accrual rules are in annual leave entitlement in Ireland.

Pension rights are preserved during the 26 weeks. During the unpaid 16 weeks you can ask the Department for credited PRSI contributions so that your social insurance record has no gap; the Department's page explains how.

Protection against dismissal

Two rules work together.

First, a notice of dismissal cannot be served during maternity leave or additional maternity leave, and a notice served before the leave does not run during it. Any purported dismissal during the leave is void under the Act. That includes a redundancy: the position is covered in redundancy on maternity or sick leave.

Second, under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015 a dismissal that is wholly or mainly because of pregnancy, giving birth, breastfeeding, or taking or asking for maternity leave is treated as unfair, and the usual requirement of 12 months' service does not apply. The same reasons are also discrimination on the gender and family status grounds under the Employment Equality Acts, which is a separate route with compensation of up to two years' pay. A reader whose job ended around a pregnancy may be in one or both of these categories; see unfair dismissal in Ireland.

Complaints about either go to the WRC within six months of the dismissal, extendable to twelve for reasonable cause.

Returning to work

You are entitled to return to the job you held before the leave, under the same contract and on terms no less favourable. If that is not reasonably practicable, the employer must offer suitable alternative work on terms not substantially less favourable. Changes that were made for everyone while you were away, such as a pay rise, apply to you too.

You cannot be required to return early, and you cannot be penalised for having taken the leave. If a return is being refused, delayed or offered on worse terms, that may be a breach of the Act, and a dispute about it can be referred to the WRC within six months.

For two years after the birth you are entitled to breastfeeding breaks, or a reduction in hours, without loss of pay, under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. Parents of children under 12 can also ask for flexible working under that Act; see remote and flexible working requests.

Health and safety during pregnancy

If a risk assessment finds a hazard to you or the baby that cannot be removed, the employer must adjust your work, move you to other work, or, as a last resort, grant health and safety leave. Health and safety leave is paid by the employer for the first three weeks and by the Department's Health and Safety Benefit after that, subject to its conditions. Ask for the risk assessment in writing if it has not been done.

You are also entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments, and to attend one set of antenatal classes, on giving the employer notice and evidence of the appointment.

Maternity leave for men

Maternity leave belongs to the mother. Fathers and other parents have their own entitlements, each with its own Department benefit at the same weekly rate:

• Paternity leave: two weeks, taken within 26 weeks of the birth, with Paternity Benefit.
• Parent's leave: nine weeks for each parent within two years of the birth, with Parent's Benefit, not transferable between parents.
• Parental leave: 26 weeks unpaid for each parent, to be used before the child turns 12.

A father is entitled to the remainder of the mother's maternity leave if she dies within 40 weeks of the birth. That is the only circumstance in which maternity leave transfers.

The Department's contact route

Questions about the benefit, including whether you have enough contributions, go to the Department's Maternity Benefit section. Its address, phone number and email are on the Maternity Benefit page linked in the sources. Questions about the leave itself, your notice, or your employer's conduct go to the WRC Infoline on 0818 80 80 90, and a complaint about a breach of the Act is made on the WRC complaint form.

Where this leaves you

You have 26 weeks of leave with Maternity Benefit of €299 a week, 16 more without pay if you want them, a start date somewhere between 16 and 2 weeks before your due date, four weeks' written notice to give at each step, and a job that is protected until you walk back into it.

The leave planner takes your due date and produces every date you need: the start window, the notice deadlines, the end of the paid weeks, the end of the unpaid weeks, and the date your return notice is due. Run it once now and again if the baby's dates change.