Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, after line 29, to insert the following: “Report on extending availability of full parent’s benefit to lone parents

8. The Minister shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on extending the availability of the full duration of parent’s benefit to lone parents to examine the effect that enabling all children to equally avail of the full duration of this benefit would have and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection within 9 months of the enactment of this Act.”.

The Minister is very welcome. This amendment is to provide for a report on extending availability of full parent's benefit to lone parents. There is an assumption in legislation like this that families are always a two-parent family. That is not always the case, as we know. I ask, as one-parent organisations have asked, that the full 14 weeks of parent's leave, increasing to 18 weeks in August 2024, be extended to one-parent families. A new baby, whether it is born into a family with two parents or one, should not lose out on the additional supports. I ask that the Minister address that particular point and issue.