A female Tipperary councillor has said that a new maternity bill would have allowed her to enter politics sooner.
Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns has tabled a bill that would offer maternity, paternity and adoptive leave to local authority councillors.
Speaking to Tipp FM, Fine Gael Councillor Mary Hanna Hourigan said that this bill would have changed her own political journey.
“I had an opportunity in 1991, when my father, who was very ill at the time, retired from public life.
“He was the local councillor, had a heart condition and didn’t seek election that year and so, out of a family of seven, I was the only one interested in politics and in entering and running, but I had a young son at the time, so it just didn’t make sense for me and my husband was working full time and I couldn’t have done it.
“I put off my decision and I was asked at different times, at local elections, by the local branch here, would I run in this area and I declined, because I had three children at that stage.”
