Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I am not at all sure a prescriptive amendment like this would do anything for flexibility. The spirit of the section containing this provision is one of co-operation between employer and employee so that where it suits both the employer and the employee, they may agree together that parental leave may be taken in whatever fashion they jointly decide.

This amendment ignores the day-to-day reality of running a business or providing a service which relies on the presence of the required number of employees at any given time. The Deputy's amendment effectively means that an employee would be guaranteed whatever flexibility is desired unless the employer could demonstrate in every case why a refusal was justified on business case grounds, thus placing an unnecessary administrative burden on employers.

The reality is that many employers and their employees already have flexible parental leave schemes negotiated and in place. I am not at all convinced that employers are likely to be more amenable to flexibility because they are obliged to respond in a prescribed way to requests for greater flexibility on how parental leave may be taken. I think this is a very bad amendment and I reject it.

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