Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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422. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing paternity benefit by one, two, three, four, five and six weeks, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14742/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Paternity Benefit is a payment for employed and self-employed people who are on from work and covered by . It is paid for 2 weeks and is available for any child born or adopted on or after 1 September 2016. The 2018 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of nearly €16 million.

The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of paternity benefit is approximately €5.2 million for each extra week. The table below estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of paternity benefit above its current 2 week duration at the current weekly rate of €240. It should be noted that Budget 2018 provided 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.