Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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873. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 102 of 4 November 2025, her views on the way in which evidence based policy will be effectively developed in the absence of up-to-date data on return to work outcomes following maternity, paternity and parent's leave (details supplied). [61505/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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While noting that the data produced in the releases of the “Employment Analysis of Maternity and Paternity Benefits” is useful, it is not the only evidence used for the development of policy on family leaves.

Such policies are developed using numerous different evidence sources such as research and reports commissioned by Departments, research conducted by reputable research organisations, eg; the ESRI, consultations with stakeholders, strategies developed by international bodies such as the EU and Council of Europe, and analysis by other countries or international agencies like the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

A key priority in First 5, the whole of Government Strategy for babies, young children and their families (2019-2028) is to support parents to look after their babies at home for the whole of their first year given the benefits of parental care in that first year for children’s outcomes. The Programme for Government sets out a commitment to examine the possible extension of parent's leave and benefit and additional flexibilities.

In developing the policy to meet these commitments my officials and I will take all available, relevant and recent contributions into account from the various evidence sources I have laid out above.