Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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246. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated first year cost and full year cost of increasing paternity leave by one, two, three and four weeks, respectively. [19360/18]

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. 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 for the paternity benefit scheme.

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.

Estimated annual cost of increasing the duration of Paternity Benefit based on 2018 rates