Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)

Barely a day goes by when I am not told how lucky I am to have such a supportive husband and it is true. I am very lucky to have a very supportive husband, who does a great job, but our marriage is a partnership. I do not believe many of my male colleagues get the same commentary. The cultural biases regarding fathers as parents really need to change. The CSO and ESRI data show that the take up of paternity leave is at 50% while the take up of parent's leave is 25%. There is limited data on parental leave. I would encourage the Minister to look at how we can change societal norms and the culture in workplaces. We have to set examples from the top and we have to be vocal about it. I would like to hear what work the Minister will try to do to deliver on that because equality of leave, including statutory leave, is so important to delivering on progress in equality.