Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The directive very much focuses on young children and stipulates the age of eight years as a minimum point. Rather than rely on the directive, we decided to look at how existing types of leave are provided. Parental leave provides that a significant amount of unpaid leave can be taken up until a child has reached 12 years. We felt that 12 years was a suitable level at which to set the ability to claim these types of leave. Notwithstanding that where a child has a disability or a parent or parents are carers for the child, if that child is aged between 13 and 18 years or, indeed, is an adult, the provisions can also be sought.