Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 196: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the action he will take to address the flaw in the recently enacted Parental Leave Amendment Act 2006 as a result of which parents of young children working for the same employer will not be able to transfer their 14 weeks of parental leave between each other; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30637/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006, which was enacted on 18 May last, amends the Parental Leave Act 1998 to implement agreed recommendations in the Report of the Working Group on the Review of the Parental Leave Act 1998. It also implements an increase in the maximum age limit of an eligible child to 8 years, agreed subsequent to the publication of the Report in the context of the Sustaining Progress Partnership Agreement.

Section 2 of the Bill, as initiated in the Seanad on 16 December, 2004, amended section 6 of the 1998 Act by substituting it with a new section 6 to take account of a number of changes in relation to the entitlement to parental leave i.e. increase in the upper age limit of an eligible child, extension of the provisions to include adopting parents and persons acting in loco parentis of an eligible child.

However, at Report stage of the Bill in the Dáil, an Opposition amendment was accepted which inserted a new section to the Bill which amends section 6(7) of the 1998 Act to allow for the transfer of parental leave between parents where both parents are employed by the same employer.

This amendment was technically flawed, as the new section 3 seeks to amend a subsection which was deleted and substituted by the text of subsection 2 of the Bill (now Act). It was not possible to correct the problem with the text before enactment, without creating further delay to the enactment of the Bill.

While the amendment itself does not pose a difficulty in principle, I acknowledge that it confuses the issue regarding the transferability of parental leave. I intend to seek Government approval for an amending provision, to be included in a suitable legislative instrument, at an early date.