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

I touched base with officials about that. Regarding who is entitled to leave for medical care purposes, section 5 of the Bill inserts a new section 13A into the Parental Leave Act to provide for an entitlement to five days of medical care leave for parents and carers. An employee can take the leave to care for a person of whom the employee is the relevant parent, the spouse or civil partner of the employee, the cohabitant of the employee, a parent or grandparent of the employee, a brother or sister of the employee, or a person other than one specified who resides in the same household as the employee and is in need of significant care or support for a serious medical reason. That list of entitlements is in line with Article 6 of the work-life balance directive and the definitions provided for in Article 3. This type of leave is short-term. It is different to carer's leave, which is a much longer-term commitment. This leave is short-term, at five days. It provides a degree of flexibility and allows non-familial people living in the same household to avail of the leave. I am not sure if that fully addresses the Deputy's earlier points but it outlines what has been provided.

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