Written answers

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Department of Social Protection

Parental Leave Expenditure

Photo of Anne RabbitteAnne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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146. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the annual cost of increasing parental leave benefits by one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, seven weeks, eight weeks, nine weeks and ten weeks, respectively. [19104/17]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Parents have an entitlement to parental leave which is unpaid but there is no provision under current legislation for paid parental leave. Since 8 March 2013 the amount of parental leave available for each child amounts to a total of 18 working weeks per child. Both parents have an equal separate entitlement to parental leave.

There is a commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government (PfG) to increase paid leave for parents for the first year of a child’s life. Work has commenced to explore the options available with discussions taking place between officials from the Department of Justice and Equality and my Department.

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