Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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603. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing paternity benefit by one to six weeks, respectively, taking into account increases announced in budget 2018, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3188/18]

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 €5.2 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 a weekly rate of €240. It should be noted that Budget 2018 provides for the weekly rate of payment to be increased by €5 per week to €240 from 26 March 2018.

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.

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 2018. 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.