Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward these two amendments, which are very similar. While I understand the intention of the Deputies in proposing that we provide a report on a review of this legislation within a year, I do not consider that to be the best approach. I do not agree that these amendments offer the best way to proceed and I will try to explain why that is the case.

The first issue is the proposal for a further extension of leave and the requirement to report on how that is being progressed. I have made a commitment in this House that Ireland will meet its requirements under the EU directive to roll out the remaining four weeks of paid leave that are specified. The directive has to be transposed into law by June 2022, as Deputy Kerrane noted. However, it states that the last two weeks of paid leave do not have to be provided until August 2024. This is not a derogation specific to Ireland; it applies to all member states. The full nine weeks must be in play by August 2024 and seven weeks have to be provided for by June next year. The current provision is five weeks.

Deputy Whitmore asked whether this could have been done through statutory instrument. The reason we are proceeding by way of legislation is to ensure the two-year period will apply. This element requires legislation to enable it to be claimed in the first two years. One year was set down in the primary legislation and we are amending that to provide for two years. I understand the Deputy is bringing forward an amendment on that point, which we will discuss in due course. Future extensions of the weeks of paid leave will be implemented by way of statutory instrument, which will allow this process to be aligned much more quickly with any announcement. That is something everybody will welcome. Those future extensions will have to be undertaken in engagement with my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, who is responsible for paying the benefit, and, ultimately, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I have been very clear in all my utterances of my intention that this is where my Department will be focusing in terms of supporting families over the coming years. We will meet our requirements in this regard under the EU directive.

The point was made that we should streamline all parental leave legislation, including that providing for maternity leave, paternity leave, parent's leave and benefit, and parental leave. I appreciate that there is a wide variety of types of leave for parents and that this can cause some confusion. On the other hand, it is good that all these types of leave are there to meet particular needs. The amount of leave that is available has increased very significantly in recent years, which is welcome. In terms of meeting the gap that was outlined between the end of maternity leave and eligibility for the ECCE scheme, I am very happy to look at how we can work to publicise in a clearer way the range of leaves that are available. I have been engaging recently with the social partners, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and a number of employer groups, on these issues. Indeed, this is an issue that regularly comes up in our discussions with those groups. I am committed to examining how we can better outline to people what the various leaves are and how they can apply for them.

When considering the gap between the end of parental leave, including paid and unpaid parental leave, and the start of the ECCE scheme, it is important to acknowledge that we are narrowing that gap, including by the significant step we are taking today, in this Bill, by extending parent's leave and unpaid parental leave. That is extremely important in encouraging a more equal sharing of caring responsibilities between women and men. It is also important to note that the national childcare scheme, NCS, is in place and kicks in from 24 weeks up to 36 months, or until the child qualifies for the ECCE scheme. It is available for up to 45 hours per week at a 50 cent per hour subvention. Families may also be eligible for an income-assessed subsidy from 24 weeks up to the age of 15. This is set at a progressive rate of up to €5.10 per hour for under-ones and €4.35 for children aged one to three. Undoubtedly, we need to do more to increase these rates and encourage a wider take-up of the NCS. Deputy Whitmore and I have discussed this issue in a wider context and the Government has committed to do that. It is important that we do not put out the message that there is a complete gap between the end of paid maternity leave and eligibility for the fully subsidised ECCE scheme. The new scheme has been in place for only two years. We have a lot more to do to improve it but it is there and I am committed to working further on it.

Reference was made to the rates of payment provided. Parent's benefit is paid at the rate of €245 per week, which is the same rate that applies for maternity and paternity leave. If any change were made to parent's benefit, we would have to look at its impact on the other types of leave. A total of 13,000 claims for parent's leave were made in the first 12 months of its introduction. In January this year, there were just short of 2,500 claims, which represents a significant increase in uptake. The leave is being availed of by parents and by better publicising its existence and how it can be applied for, we will continue to grow the numbers benefiting from it. I am always happy at budget time to speak with the Ministers for Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform about how we can best target our resources to have the most impact, whether by raising rates or providing additional weeks of leave.

I absolutely take Deputy Kerrane's point about the much greater risk for children raised in one-parent families of experiencing poverty. There is statistical backup for that claim. Our hands are tied in this particular legislation because we are transposing an EU directive and that directive is entirely clear about the non-transferability of the paid leave. That is set out in Article 5.2 of the directive. The nine weeks that we will eventually provide under the Bill is non-transferable. To create a system whereby it could be transferred would, to my understanding, breach our requirements under the directive.

I made the point yesterday that the range of people who can claim the leave is much wider than the biological parents of the child. As well as parents, it includes civil partners, new spouses in the case of relationship breakdown and co-habitees of a parent. There is a wide range of potential persons who can claim this particular benefit, in recognition of the wide variety of family situations that exist in society. The directive, however, is very clear that this is leave for parents. I take the point the Deputies made in this regard but that is the clear thrust of the directive.

Just reading through its recital, the directive is very much cognisant of the fact that for too long, when leave was transferable, in the vast majority of cases the father's leave was transferred to the mother and traditional assumptions about care were reinforced. That is what this directive is trying to get away from. This directive has increased the amount of non-transferable time. In the original directive, four weeks were non-transferable but that has been raised to nine weeks in this. It was not felt enough was taking place to breach the traditional approach to caring responsibilities.

I have been very clear I am aware we as a country must do more to support one-parent families. We have provisions within the programme for Government to continue the rolling out of the proposals outlined in the Oireachtas joint committee on social protection report on lone parents from 2017. We had a measure from this year's budget that will start in April this year for a one-parent family allowance. There are a range of other measures in the programme for Government with which we are committed to addressing this matter.

Focusing on this one measure as potentially addressing a much wider range of barriers faced by one-parent families is not realistic. In particular, any changes made that would probably be in breach of EU law would only apply to one-parent families from now on and would not address the needs of existing one-parent families. If we are putting in additional resources, we must target all one-parent families.

I take on board the direction of the Deputies' amendments. We must implement the terms of the directive by June next year and much of the work the Deputies are asking us to report on in the context of the amendments must be done anyway. Not only will we report on it but many elements must be addressed either through primary or secondary legislation.

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