David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of amendment No. 3 is to modify the Bill's approach towards parents who were unable to use their full entitlement to parental leave previously. Section 6 of the Parental Leave Act 1998 provides for parents' entitlements to parental leave. At present, if a child reaches the age of eight years, then his or her parents will no longer have an entitlement to parental leave, even if he or she has not used the full 18-week entitlement. As Senators will recall, one of the key principles of the Bill is to increase the qualifying age of a child from eight to 12.

In parallel to that measure, amendment No. 4 inserts new subsection (8A) into section 6 of the 1998 Act to provide that, where a parent was unable to take his or her full entitlement to parental leave under the 1998 Act due to his or her child reaching the age of eight years, that parent will now be able to take any unclaimed leave as long as the child is under the newly-increased qualifying age of 12 years. This amendment reflects the Government's desire to support parents wishing to take their existing and new leave entitlements by increasing the upper age limit for the child, thereby increasing the period of time in which the parents can take the leave. It is a key part of the Government's efforts to support working families.