Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I cannot accept amendments Nos. 5 and 6, the effect of which would be to allow adopting parents the option of deciding which of them would avail of the additional unpaid adoptive leave. This would break the link between adoptive and maternity leave by opening the leave entitlement to adopting fathers, which would create an anomaly between the leave entitlements of adopting and natural fathers in that the latter have no such entitlement in maternity leave legislation. In addition I do not believe this amendment is needed, as on the enactment of the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill, which will come into force in coming months, adopting fathers will be allowed to take parental leave at any time after the placement of an adopted child.

At present the entitlement to parental leave is only available from the time an adoption order is made whereas the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill provides that the leave may be taken from the time of the placement. While I accept the thrust of the Deputy's argument, what he seeks will be adequately covered by the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill. In addition we do not have paternity——

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