The Green Party have called on the Government to overhaul the current maternity leave legislation so that includes mothers of premature babies.
The latest motion which will be submitted later this has asked for new measures that will cover mothers who have to go through the experience of having their baby early.
The party say the new measures would cost in the region of €5.4million and they should be included in the next Budget.
Green Party TD Catherine Martin (pictured), said if introduced a mother of a child born at 32 weeks, would be entitled to an extra eight weeks maternity leave and benefit.
Ms Martin also said the new measures should be introduced as the current legislation only gives 26 weeks leave, and a further 16 weeks unpaid leave “but it doesn’t take into consideration the traumatic experience a mother and father has to go through when a child is born premature”.
Ms Martin finalised by saying: “Your maternity leave kicks off when your child is born so we are looking to extend that to make it fairer.”