Labour MP Ramona Attard ignites Malta debate on longer maternity leave

Labour MP Ramona Attard has thrown her weight behind a growing chorus demanding a national conversation on extending Malta’s maternity leave, igniting a debate that cuts to the heart of the island’s family-first identity. Speaking during a parliamentary adjournment on Monday evening, the first-time representative for District 2 urged ministers to “look parents in the eye” and explain why Maltese mothers still return to work when their babies are barely four months old.

“Every week I meet young couples who postpone children, not because they lack love, but because they fear the maths: four months of leave, stagnant wages and nursery fees that swallow a second salary,” Attard told colleagues. “We boast Europe’s lowest unemployment, yet we expect our women to swap nursing chairs for office chairs faster than anywhere else west of Sicily.”

Malta currently offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave at a flat €179 weekly, a rate frozen since 2010. A further four weeks of unpaid leave are possible, but Eurostat data show only one in five mothers can afford to take them. The result is that Maltese women return to work on average after 19 weeks—six weeks sooner than the EU mean and 18 weeks before Swedes, who enjoy 480 days of shared parental leave.

The gap is widening. In April, the European Parliament voted to endorse a directive guaranteeing 20 weeks of fully-paid leave and another eight weeks for partners. While the proposal must still clear the Council, it has already emboldened local campaigners who insist the island can no longer brand itself “pro-family” on paper alone.

Attard’s intervention is significant. As a former mayor of Żabbar and mother of nine-year-old twins, she carries street credibility in Labour’s traditional heartland where childcare is often shared across three generations. “I was lucky—my mum, my aunts, my neighbours stepped in,” she admitted. “But the village safety net is unravelling. Grandparents now work past 65, and terraced houses have been carved into Airbnb flats. Who’s rocking the cradle?”

Her comments landed just days after the Malta Chamber of Commerce warned that skills shortages have reached “critical” levels, with women aged 25-39 leaving the workforce at twice the male rate. Economists at the Central Bank estimate that every month a mother stays at home beyond statutory leave costs the exchequer €1,200 in lost income-tax revenue—but saves €2,800 in nursery subsidies, paediatric care and future special-education support.

Outside Parliament, reactions were swift. The Nationalist Party’s equality spokesperson Paula Mifsud Bonnici welcomed “a serious debate” but cautioned against “one-size-fits-all European templates” that could burden small employers. Meanwhile, the UĦM Voice of the Workers demanded a phased system where leave is progressively extended to 26 weeks by 2027, financed through a modest 0.5% rise in national insurance contributions split between bosses and workers.

At the Busy Bees childcare centre in Msida, manager Rebecca Camilleri has seen enrolment of three-month-olds jump 40% since 2019. “Parents arrive teary-eyed, still stitched from C-sections, asking if we can keep expressed milk in labelled bags,” she sighs. “We do our best, but a four-month-old needs skin, not plastic.”

Across the road, café-owner Steve Ellul fears extra payroll costs, yet admits his most loyal staff are mothers who “multitask like NATO operatives”. He proposes a government rebate for micro-businesses: “Give me back 50% of the extra leave pay and I’ll throw in flexible shifts. Happy baby, happy bottom line.”

The cultural stakes are high. Maltese society still baptises babies within weeks and celebrates village feasts with prams parked under confetti cannons. Yet fertility rates have plummeted to 1.1 children per woman—lowest in the EU. Sociologist Dr Sandra Scicluna argues that longer leave signals national self-confidence: “If we truly value the Maltese family as the cornerstone of society, we must let mothers be mothers without sentencing them to career stagnation.”

Opponents counter that tourism, gaming and construction—sectors already complaining of labour shortages—cannot absorb long absences. Yet Iceland, with a population smaller than Malta’s, offers 12 months of shared leave while maintaining higher female employment. Closer to home, Portugal funds 17 fully-paid weeks through a social-security model identical to Malta’s.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has so far stayed silent, but sources within the Labour parliamentary group say a white paper is being drafted for release before the summer recess. Attard, for her part, refuses to let the issue drift. “This is not a women’s issue; it’s a Maltese issue,” she insists. “An island that asks its daughters to choose between babies and pay-cheques will soon find itself singing lullabies to empty classrooms.”

As the sun sets on Valletta’s Grand Harbour, the debate is only beginning. Whether Malta opts for Nordic ambition or Mediterranean gradualism, one thing is clear: the cry for longer maternity leave has moved from NGO petitions to the floor of the House. And in a country where politics is the national sport, the next move belongs to the government.