Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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265. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to enable public sector workers to enjoy the same entitlements as their colleagues in the Civil Service regarding transferring 14 weeks of entitlements to parental leave between one parent and the other under the Parental Leave Act. [46809/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As part of my responsibilities as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have overarching responsibility for the terms and conditions of employment of public servants.  However, specific policies relating to parental leave in each of the sectors of the public service, other than the civil service, are dealt with by the appropriate responsible Minister.

The arrangements for parental leave in the civil service are set out in Circular 20/2008: Parental Leave in the Civil Service which was updated to reflect changes in the Parental Leave Acts 1998-2006. This circular provides (at Paragraph 10) that either parent may transfer parental leave to the other parent, where both of the parents of a child are entitled to parental leave in respect of the child and where both parents are working for the same employer. Persons employed in the Civil Service are deemed to be working for the same employer when availing of parental leave. A decision to grant or refuse the transfer of parental leave is subject to the consent of the Department/Office in question and should be based on the business needs of the organisation concerned.