Ireland’s health service has confirmed that transgender men who become pregnant or give birth are entitled to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave on full basic pay.
Guidance published for staff of the Health Service Executive (HSE) states that, since 2023, “transgender men who are pregnant or have given birth can access maternity leave”. To qualify, an employee must hold a gender recognition certificate issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2015.
Those who qualify may also take up to 16 weeks of additional unpaid maternity leave. That period must begin immediately after the paid leave ends.
The HSE guidance said employees on maternity leave keep their normal basic pay and fixed allowances, reduced by any maternity benefit received under the health service maternity pay scheme. Payments for night work, overtime and on-call duty are excluded.
The entitlement is not new. Rights under the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004 were extended to transgender men who have given birth from July 3, 2023 under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.
There is no minimum length of service attached to the entitlement. The advice was first reported by the Irish news website Gript on August 5 and was picked up by outlets elsewhere in Europe.
Ireland was among the first countries in Europe to adopt legal gender self-declaration. The 2015 act allows anyone aged 18 or over to change their legal sex by statutory declaration, without a medical diagnosis or an assessment by a doctor.
Applicants aged 16 and 17 require a court order. The certificate changes the holder’s legal sex for all purposes from the date of issue and allows the holder to obtain a new birth certificate.
Figures published by the Department of Social Protection showed 334 people aged 18 and over were granted certificates in 2024, down slightly on the previous year. Ten applications in that age group were refused.
The Irish arrangement differs from that in the neighbouring United Kingdom, where the Gender Recognition Act 2004 requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and evidence of two years living in the acquired gender.
Ireland has faced criticism before over the drafting of gender-related law. The Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act, signed into law in October 2024, defined gender by reference to self-identification and to categories other than male and female.
The European Commission has been pressing member states in the same direction, setting out an LGBTIQ+ equality strategy that calls for tighter enforcement of rules on what it terms hateful content.
The HSE did not say how many of its staff had used the maternity provision.
