S.I. No. 230/1994:

SOCIAL WELFARE (MATERNITY BENEFIT (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1994.

SOCIAL WELFARE (MATERNITY BENEFIT (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1994.

The Minister for Social Welfare, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 4 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993 (No. 27 of 1993) and section 39 of that Act (amended by section 17 of the Social Welfare Act, 1994 (No. 4 of 1994)), hereby makes the following Regulations:--

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Social Welfare (Maternity) (Amendment) Regulations, 1994.

(2) These Regulations and the Social Welfare (Maternity Allowance) Regulations, 1992 and 1993 shall be construed together as one and may be cited together as the Social Welfare (Maternity Benefit) Regulations, 1992 to 1994.

2. In these Regulations--

"the Principal Act" means the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993 ;

"the Principal Regulations" means the Social Welfare (Maternity Allowance) Regulations, 1992 ( S.I. No. 87 of 1992 );

"the Regulations of 1993" means the Social Welfare (Maternity Allowance) (Amendment) Regulations, 1993 ( S.I. No. 201 of 1993 ).

3. These Regulations shall come into operation on the 25th day of July, 1994.

4. Article 6 of the Principal Regulations is hereby amended by the substitution in sub-article (2) of "74.20" for "£65" (inserted by article 6 of the Regulations of 1993).

5. The Principal Regulations are hereby amended by the substitution for article 7 (amended by article 7 of the Regulations of 1993) of the following article:

"7. For the purposes of section 39 (3) of the Principal

Act, the reckonable weekly earnings of a woman for any income tax year shall be calculated as her total reckonable earnings for that income tax year divided by the number of qualifying contributions in the said income tax year, fractions of a pound being disregarded, up to a maximum of £227.".

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Social Welfare, this 21st day of July, 1994.

MICHAEL WOODS,

Minister for Social Welfare.

The Minister for Finance hereby consents to the making of the foregoing Regulations.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Finance, this 21st day of July, 1994.

BERTIE AHERN,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations provide for a new minimum weekly payment of Maternity Benefit of £74.20 with effect from 25 July, 1994.

In addition, the method of calculating a woman's reckonable weekly earnings for the purposes of determining her weekly rate of payment is being changed from one-fiftieth of her earnings in the relevant year to the annual earnings divided by the actual number of qualifying contributions in that year.