‘Both parents should have home stay choice’

Zappone also confirms 14 more parental leave weeks

THE Government has said it will give every parent of a newborn seven additional weeks’ leave in their young infant’s first year of life by 2021.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone announced the plan yesterday and also said that both parents should have the option of staying home in their child’s first year if they wish to.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland ahead of the launch of the Government’s First 5 strategy for early childhood, the Minister said supports should be in place to enable parents do this.

Although she admitted that the current plan falls short of this, she said the new strategy marked ‘a massive increased investment in a relatively short period of time’.

The ten-year plan comes days after Mr Varadkar spoke at his Poverty: Katherine Zappone party’s ard fheis, saying Fine Gael could ‘look proudly to its record and the many steps we have taken to build a state that cares, and in particular one that cares for families’.

The comment drew criticism from commentators who cited the number of children living in consistent poverty in Ireland as being an estimated 138,000, according to Barnardos, whose chief executive levelled criticism at the Government for the number just two months ago.

Speaking at the launch of the programme, Dr Zappone said she was concerned about the statistics, but was confident her initiative would go towards remedying the problem.

‘We’re making commitments to mitigate the impact of poverty, we’re going to offer meals in pre-schools and primary schools, hot meals in the middle of the day. The Government have also worked with me to increase subsidies for families with children to get childcare and those who earn the least get the most subsidy – that will make the greatest difference.’

The strategy commits to a maximum of 14 weeks’ paid parental leave by 2021 for working parents, in addition to maternity and paternity leave.

A Fianna Fáil Bill that would have allowed mothers to share their maternity leave with their partners was debated in the Dáil last week, but was rejected by the Government.

Ms Zappone said yesterday: ‘I think, in general, it’s really important we increase maternity, paternity, and paid leave, and effectively the Government has a plan to do that.’

The Government confirmed in the recent budget that it intends to roll out a new parental benefit scheme which will allow both parents to have an additional two weeks’ leave in the child’s first year.

The measures announced in the recent budget are to take effect from next year, but the new extended measures mean that by 2021, parents of infants will be able to take a combined total of 14 weeks’ leave in the child’s first year.

This scheme will come under Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty’s portfolio.

‘Increased investment’

MINISTER for Children Katherine Zappone says she wants to ensure parents can, if they wish, spend a substantial portion of the first year of their child’s life at home.

Why stop there? There are many parents who would like to be present at least until a child starts pre-school, but supports have continuously been reduced, making this impossible for many.

Equally, there are men and women who can’t wait to get back to work, but surely both decisions should be fully supported by the State.