Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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438. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the status of his plans to extend parent’s benefit and leave to ensure all parents can avail of the scheme including parents of children born through surrogacy and to extend the full available benefit and allowance to lone parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59135/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Under the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019 (as amended), working parents are entitled to five weeks of paid Parents' Leave for each relevant parent, to be taken in the first two years after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. Provision has been made in Budget 2022 to increase this entitlement further to seven weeks per eligible parent with effect from July 2022.

The intention of this leave is to enable parents to spend time with their child in the earliest years. It is deliberately non-transferable between parents to ensure that both parents are encouraged and supported in taking time out from work to spend time with their child. This is further supported through the provision of Parents’ Benefit.

It is important to note that the entitlement under the 2019 Act is for each parent in their own right and is not an allocation per family. This is a requirement of the Work Life Balance Directive. The Act was drafted in such a way as to take account of the broad complexion of family life and allows for an entitlement for the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the parent.

This means that each parent of the child, and their respective spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, is entitled to take Parents’ Leave in respect of that child. In effect this means the parents of a child do not have to be a couple in order for each to qualify and that, if in separate relationships, their new partners can also qualify.

Commissioning surrogate parents may be entitled to Parents’ Leave, depending on their circumstances. The father of a child born through surrogacy can qualify for Parents’ Leave if he is the biological father of the child and declared to be the parent of the child. In these circumstances, the father's partner may qualify for Parents’ Leave if they are married to, or in a civil partnership with, the child’s biological father, or have cohabited with the child’s biological father for over 3 years.

At a wider level, policy on surrogacy rests with the Minister for Health, and policy on parentage is a matter for the Minister for Justice. It is important to develop legislation on family leave in the context of the legal situation concerning parentage, including in relation to surrogacy. Any changes in the legal situation with regard to parentage and surrogacy are matters for the Minister for Justice and Minister for Health.