Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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708. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Ireland is lagging behind many other EU countries in terms of recognising and supporting the role of fathers in parenting; if he will follow the lead of other countries by introducing paternity leave starting with a provision similar to that recently introduced in the UK that allows paternity leave as part of a shared leave arrangement between mothers and fathers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27361/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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At this time there are no proposal to introduce paternity leave however this matter will be kept under review. While male employees are not entitled to paid or unpaid paternity leave, they may be entitled to Parental Leave.

In March of this year I signed the European Union (Parental Leave ) Regulations 2013 which increased the amount of parental leave available to each parent per child from 14 weeks to 18 weeks. Both parents have an equal separate entitlement to parental leave and if they both work for the same employer and the employer agrees 14 weeks of the leave may be transferred to the other parent.