Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I believe the Government's decision is a substantive and significant one in advancing the extension of parents' leave and benefits to five weeks for all parents of children born after 1 November 2019. That is to give parents who gave birth during the Covid period an opportunity to avail of the scheme. The pre-existing scheme was somewhat limited and could have excluded them. The proposal Deputy McDonald put forward in terms of paternity benefit would have required further social welfare and justice legislation and would have had to be retrospective, which would have been complex enough. Also, the benefit of this proposal is that it is consistent and in line with policy positions that Government had adopted and the Oireachtas had agreed to in respect of parents' leave.

There are other groups out there as well. If one takes the totality of the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy, there is a substantive range of supports helping people in different groupings and different situations.

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