Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Parental Leave

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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1152. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will consider extending paternity leave to longer than two weeks. [46464/24]

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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1162. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to address the unequal burden of unpaid care work, which often falls on women. [46502/24]

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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1163. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps being taken to encourage more men to take paternity leave and share care-giving responsibilities, in order to reduce the gendered impact on career progression. [46503/24]

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1152, 1162 and 1163 together.

There have been significant improvements in the duration of family leaves for working families in recent years. The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 provides the relevant parent (other than the mother of the child) with 2 weeks paid paternity leave. S.6(5) of the Act limits this entitlement in the case of multiple births to a single period of leave.

Under the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019, working parents are now entitled to nine weeks of paid parent's leave for each relevant parent, to be taken in the first two years after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. Parent's Leave is an individual separate entitlement and is non-transferable between parents.

Parental leave entitlements were also extended in 2019 with an increase of leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks, and the extension of the time period in which the leave can be taken from when the child attains the age of 8 years to when the child attains the age of 12 years.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 was enacted on 4 April 2023, and introduces important entitlements for workers, including leave for medical care purposes for parents of children under 12, and the right to request flexible working for parents and carers. It transposes the Work-Life Balance Directive which specifically prevents the transfer of paid leave between parents in the interests of gender equality and of encouraging fathers as well as mothers to take such leave.

Family leave provisions are kept under review to ensure that they are effective and respond to the needs of families. Given the significant expansion to family leaves and workplace supports in the last number of years, there are no further plans to amend paternity leave at this time.

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