Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill, the proposed increase in parental leave from two weeks to five weeks and the inclusion of those in same-sex marriages. It shows we are moving forward and being positive, which I welcome.

I do, however, have a number of issues with the Bill, which I will outline. First, the rate is too low. A lot of families, if they decide to take parental leave and especially if they decide to take the full ten weeks, would be down a considerable amount of money during that time. This will be a barrier to some parents taking this leave. That is something we need to improve and work on.

A number of people have contacted me about this Bill. It was promised last summer and again in October. It is now the end of March and it will probably not be in until April. Families have missed out on this over the past year. Will it be backdated for those people?

Children of lone parents are discriminated against under this Bill because they will only be given five weeks with their parent while the children of families with two parents will have ten weeks with their parents. That discrimination against certain children needs to be addressed. The provisions should have been child-centred. This Bill discriminates against the children of lone parents.

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