Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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1631. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the full-year cost of increasing paternity benefit by one, two, three, four, five and six weeks, respectively, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1238/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 which was enacted in July 2016 introduced a new scheme of paternity leave and an associated social welfare payment of paternity benefit from the 1st September 2016. Since the commencement of the scheme on 1 September 2016, 32,784 paternity benefit claims have been awarded to 31 December 2017.

The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of paternity benefit is approximately €5.5 million for each extra week. The following table estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of paternity benefit above its current 2 week duration at the current weekly rate of €235. It should be noted that Budget 2018 provides for the weekly rate of payment to be increased by €5 per week from 26 March 2018.

Estimated annual cost of increasing the duration of Paternity Benefit based on 2017 rates

These estimates are based on the cost for a full year and assume that any increase in duration is implemented from the beginning of the year. The cost in the first year would depend on the implementation date that the increase in duration would take effect. This cost would be proportional to the full year cost.

It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients for 2017. It should also be noted that there are also costs to the Exchequer as these estimates do not include the costs of salary top-ups for public/civil servants.