ISME hits out at maternity leave proposals

Business body ISME has lashed out at suggestions that employers will have to pay women full pay for 20 weeks maternity leave.

It follows the announcement that MEP's voted this afternoon to approve the move, and to afford fathers two weeks paternity leave.

Jim Curran from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises group said it is going to be a huge cost to the country.

"Our concern, obviously, is that going on past experiences, this will be foisted on the business sector and in particularly small businesses. The bottom line is that we simply cannot afford to pay it." he said.