Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The facility will only be available to staff in the Houses. There are some crèches in the public service, in Revenue and some other Departments, that are open to staff and there is a number of private crèches that people can use.

A total of 35 staff across all grades in my Department, up to and including principal officer, avail of work sharing. That is quite a high number out of a total of not much more than 200 people. That obviously helps staff with young children. The type of work sharing options available to staff include four-day weeks, three-and-a half-day weeks, three-day weeks, two-and-a-half-day weeks, two-day weeks, split weeks, mornings-only, evenings-only, week-on and week-off, and so forth. The system is extremely helpful and flexible for staff. The split week is by far the most popular option with staff. The other options are only availed of by one or two individuals, but the split week is very popular. The next most popular option is the four-day week. Those two options cover the majority of the work sharing arrangements.

As Deputy Sargent has said, the term time option is very helpful for people with small, schoolgoing children in the four to seven or five to eight age groups. It allows people to take leave for at least a sizeable part of the summer break, which works fairly well, without totally disrupting the Department. It works for people who are in an EU section or a section that is not as busy in July and August as it is during the rest of the year. It is helpful and useful to people.

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