Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The direction of travel in terms of parental leave, if I have any influence over it, is that there should be more and a couple should be able to share it. It is important that there always be dedicated maternal leave for particular reasons, but couples should be allowed some flexibility in how they use their parental leave. If we can afford it, through a far more modern social insurance system, the payment should be pay related. It used to be a pay related benefit. Obviously, it must be balanced against the impact on labour costs. That must also be taken into account. However, some of the best employers in the country such as some of the multinationals offer the best parental leave arrangements. Facebook, for example, offers four months paid paternal leave, which is extraordinary. I am not sure if SMEs could afford to do it, but it shows that an increasing number of employers are understanding finding and keeping good staff can be linked with the benefits and terms and conditions they provide.

I spoke to many of my counterpart Ministers in the Nordic countries, as well as in Estonia and the Baltic states. What is different about many of these countries is that they have a very low birth rate and are having difficulty in sustaining their populations, which is one of the factors involved in some of the policies they are putting forward. That is not the case in Ireland.

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