Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Government has committed to the continued support of working parents to achieve a better work-life balance. Parent’s leave and benefit falls into this category and encourages the sharing of parental responsibilities equally between couples. The Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 introduced two weeks of paid parent’s leave for each parent of a child born or adopted after 1 November 2019. In budget 2021, this leave increased from two weeks to five weeks. Since these changes came into effect in April 2021, parent’s benefit is paid at a weekly flat rate of €250 for five weeks to employed and self-employed people who avail of parent's leave and who satisfy certain PRSI contribution and other conditions. The rate of parent’s benefit is the same as the rates of paternity benefit, adoptive benefit and maternity benefit.

A total of 51,400 applications for parent’s benefit were awarded in 2021 compared with 16,700 in 2020, representing an increase of more than 300%. Since the start of 2022, the total applications awarded to the end of April stands at almost 22,000.

The number of parents who have availed of parent’s leave and benefit, by county, since the expansion of the scheme from two to five weeks on 1 April 2021 is set out in tabular form. The counties with large populations, namely, Dublin and Cork, tend to have the most claims, with some 14,200 and 7,300 applications respectively. My officials regularly review county statistics to look for emerging trends across all schemes administered by the Department.

From July 2022, parent’s leave and benefit will further increase from five weeks to seven weeks. The additional two weeks of parent's leave will apply to parents of children who are under the age of two in July 2022 or adoptive children who have been placed with their parents for less than two years in July 2022.

See this speech in context