Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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90. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the measures he has taken since the Government came to office to ensure family leave entitlements have been expanded, to ensure new parents have been supported and to build new entitlements to work-life balance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19136/24]

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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114. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there is a plan to expand to all employees the entitlements to flexible working and remote working contained in the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19218/24]

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I am also asking this question on behalf of Deputy Leddin. There has been huge progress in the amount of family leave that is available and things like work-life balance, in particular working from home. I think of the difference between when I had my first young fella versus my third. I had three days leave for the first. By the time it rolled around to the third fella, it was two weeks' leave. That made a difference to me for sure but it made an enormous difference to my partner. For the full two weeks and whatever few days I had accrued, I could pitch in and help out in terms of all of the other bits and pieces that needed to be done around the house. There is huge progress and I ask the Minister to outline it.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 114 together.

There have been significant developments in the entitlements to different forms of family leave for working families in recent years. The Government committed in the programme for Government 2020 to supporting parents, including by extending paid leave to allow them to spend more time with their children during their earliest years. Parents' leave and benefit have been extended significantly by this Government. It currently provides seven weeks' paid leave for each parent, to be taken within a child's first two years. This entitlement will be extended to nine weeks later in the summer. Whereas it might have been two weeks for the Deputy in terms of parental leave, there is now that two weeks plus the nine weeks of parents' leave. There has been a dramatic expansion during the lifetime of this Government.

This Government is committed to supporting working parents, in particular those who are breastfeeding. The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, enacted on 4 April 2023, includes amendments to the Maternity Protection Acts to provide for the extension of breastfeeding breaks for employees to two years after the birth of the child. An order amending regulations relating to breastfeeding breaks made under the Maternity Protection Acts was also made on that date. These regulations are to support those new mothers who are returning to work, knowing they continue to be supported to keep breastfeeding their child. The extension of this entitlement to employees who give birth within the previous two years is in line with commitments in First 5.

The Act also introduces five days' leave for medical care purposes for parents of children under 12 and for carers. It also provides for a right to request flexible working for parents and carers. Such flexible working arrangements will allow parents and carers to alter their working day or patterns to care for children or others they have caring responsibilities for. The right to request flexible working for parents and carers and remote working for all employees was commenced on 6 March 2024 following the preparation of a code of practice by the Workplace Relations Commission. The Government has committed to reviewing these provisions after two years to consider extending the right to request flexible working to all employees.

Statutory domestic violence leave was also introduced under the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, making Ireland one of the first countries in the EU to introduce such leave. Victims of domestic violence are entitled to five days' leave over a period of 12 months to be paid at 100% of the employee’s normal rate to ensure the employee’s economic situation will not be altered. My Department also commissioned Women’s Aid to develop supports for employers to develop their own domestic violence workplace policies.

I will also bring forward shortly legislative proposals to provide for a deferral of maternity leave where a mother falls ill while pregnant or during maternity leave. It is essential we support mothers during such a vulnerable time in their lives. I will also be taking this opportunity to legislate for maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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There is a lot there that I welcome, but what the Minister has said on deferred leave is important. The Irish Cancer Society has been in touch with me and several other Members of the House to get that point across. That is something we would certainly like to see. The domestic violence leave is a superb piece of work and I congratulate the Minister on it. Neither the Minister not I are likely to benefit from the breastfeeding supports, but by God I think anybody who takes on that job of work deserves every bit of support they can get. It is an absolutely fabulous piece of work. There have been huge steps forward with all of these forms of leave, in particular parental leave. With paternal leave I think there is a cultural barrier we need to get over. There are the financial pressures and I think we have gone a long way towards easing that. There are workplace pressures where your employer may not be particularly excited about you taking up your full entitlement. There is also social pressure. The lads might be asking if you are really going to take that amount of time to be at home doing dishes. We need to tackle all of those things as well as the legislative work the Minister has done.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy says, the Leave Our Leave campaign from the Irish Cancer Society is concerned with where a woman experiences cancer or a serious illness during her maternity leave and loses the leave while she is recovering. That is something I want to legislate for and I am looking to bring forward proposals on that.

The point on the take-up of paternity leave and parents' leave is important. I do not have the full statistics here, but I recall during Covid when we moved from the two weeks parents' leave to five weeks by adding the initial three weeks, we saw a significant jump in dads taking parents' leave. That might have been aligned with Covid but there was a jump. It is still definitely less than mams, but it was an increase. Speaking personally, I believe we have to look at the rate at which maternity, paternity and parents' leave is paid. I think that is part of the disincentive, but we are taking important measures, and bringing it up to nine weeks' paid parents' leave per parent is a significant step by this Government.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I would not underestimate the cultural handbrake that is also there. There is definitely a societal pressure, in particular on men, to get that fit of child rearing done and get back to work. That is the thinking on it. I do not subscribe to that view. I think that time you put into your child at home is incredibly valuable and, to speak to our earlier question, gives that best start and early start. We need to be serious about supporting the caring economy and that income replacement rate the Minister is talking about is also part of it. We have the twin pressures of, on the one hand, demographic challenges, where we know there will be an increased need for care in our society, and, on the other hand, the acceleration of digitalisation, where we know a lot of even what are currently white-collar jobs will be displaced by technology in the coming years and decades. We need to get serious about rewarding what was traditionally a female segment of the economy and which, for that reason, was undervalued. We need to get real about valuing the caring economy.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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One of the key reasons we made parents' leave non-transferable between the two parents was because there is that societal pressure where, if you can transfer it, in a lot of situations dad's time would have gone to mam and that would have been the end of the conversation. We felt it was important to encourage dads in every way possible to spend that very valuable and potentially now 11 weeks' paid leave with their child in those initial two years.

That is important.

I also echo what the Deputy said about valuing the care economy. One of the things I have been focused on in another part of my Department, the early years section, is improving pay for childcare professionals. Following State investment through core funding in 2022, we saw the first ever pay agreement for childcare professionals. As a result of that, 73% of childcare professionals saw a pay increase and I hope in the next few weeks we will see a second pay deal or employment regulation order, ERO, again securing a 5% increase for childcare professionals.