Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the cost of providing two additional weeks of paternity leave in a full year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12214/15]

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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Paternity leave is generally a short period of leave specifically for the father taken around the time of the birth of the child. Currently there is no statutory provision for paternity leave however a number of employers, including the public service, provide a small numbers of days leave usually 3/5 days.

There are two aspects to the question of costing paternity leave. The first is the cost of a possible social welfare paternity benefit, which is a matter for my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection. The second is the gross cost to the national payroll of such a new leave allowance for employees. The gross cost to employers of the introduction of 2 weeks paternity leave would depend on a number of factors, primarily the take up rate and also average rates of pay. There were 67,000 live births in 2014. Allowing for multiple births, this gives a maximum of 64,500 potential qualifying fathers. Average weekly earnings in the last quarter of 2014 were €704 per week. Assuming that 10% of new fathers are unemployed, the gross payroll value if all eligible fathers availed of the leave would be in the order of some €40 million per week of paternity leave, out of a total weekly payroll cost of €1.114 billion (again using Q4 2014 figures). This is of course the value of salary and wages of fathers eligible to take paternity leave but not the cost of paternity leave. Additional costs for employers would depend on take up and would only arise when individual employees are replaced during absences on paternity leave. However, experience in other jurisdictions is that full take up of a new paternity leave allowance is unlikely. For example, in the UK some 50% of fathers avail of their full paternity leave entitlement. It should also be noted that many employers already make some allowance for paternity leave. In the civil service, 3 days paid leave are currently available.