Written answers

Tuesday, 17 April 2018

Department of Justice and Equality

Parental Leave

Photo of Alan FarrellAlan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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59. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to introduce shared paid parental leave; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8405/18]

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Programme for Partnership Government includes a commitment to increase paid parental leave during the first year of a child’s life, as research shows that parental care is of particular importance in the first year of life.

To further this commitment, the Government has established an interdepartmental working group to develop proposals to give effect to the programme commitments. The key objectives of this group are to:

- Develop options as to the duration of the leave, the age of the eligible child, and the level of payment to be offered;

- Determine the usefulness of adopting a phased approach;

- Estimate the likely costs arising; and

- Align any proposals as much as possible with a European Commission Proposal for a Directive on work-life balance for parents and carers which is currently under discussion at working group level under the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU.

The interdepartmental group is currently working on a policy approach and I expect it to report with its proposals towards the end of this month. 

The move to introduce a paid parental leave entitlement is also in keeping with the policy approach put forward by the European Commission's proposal for a work-life balance directive, which is currently under discussion at working group level under the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU. 

The specific objectives of the Directive are:

- To improve access to work-life balance arrangements and;

- To increase take-up of family-related leaves and flexible working arrangements by men.

The Directive’s key proposal is that parental leave should be made available to parents on a paid basis. This approach recognises that the provision of paid parental leave will be more effective and more appropriate in terms of encouraging fathers to share the caring role for their children. All the evidence shows that in parenting, what is best for children is the involvement of their fathers, in addition to their mothers, in their practical care and day to day lives.

Given that discussions are on-going at EU level and the interdepartmental working group is not due to present its proposals until later this month, the Deputy will appreciate that it would be premature at this juncture to propose any detailed plans in relation to parental leave policy.

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