Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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607. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to draft an order to extend parents leave to nine weeks as outlined in section 5, Part 8 of the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14005/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am conscious of demands on parents at this time and hope that the additional measures to support working parents that my department has introduced in recent years, including the new parent’s leave scheme and an extension of parental leave, are helping to ease some of these demands.

Presently, each parent may avail of two weeks of parent’s leave during the first year of a child’s life and may qualify for parent’s benefit during this period. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to increase parent’s leave and this matter is currently under consideration.