Varadkar plans to bring in two weeks’ paid parental leave
PARENTS could be able to take up to two weeks’ paid parental leave from next year onwards, under new proposals being considered by the Government.
A working group has been set up in the Department of Social Protection to examine bringing forward paid parental leave for the first time.
It’s understood these proposals will be submitted for the forthcoming budget for implementation in 2018.
Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar is understood to be overseeing plans to bring in two weeks’ paid leave, instead of the one week previously mooted in the Programme for Government.
It’s estimated the scheme would cost in the region of €30million per year, assuming all eligible parents took advantage of it each year.
Final details of how the scheme will work have not yet been agreed upon, however one department source told the Mail the level of payment will be similar to the payment given to those in receipt of maternity and paternity benefit. Paternity benefit is paid at the same rate as maternity benefit – €235 per week. It’s understood the working group has identified a number of key actions which will have to take place for the new plans to come into effect.
The scheme would require primary legislation which would have to be brought from the Department of Justice. There would then need to be secondary legislation from the Department of Social Protection, as well as the establishment of a new system to oversee the administration of the new payment. Finally, the funding would have to be secured from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which could consider the proposals in the wider budgetary context this September and October.
Parents are entitled to unpaid parental leave but there is no provision under current legislation for paid parental leave.
Since March 8, 2013, the amount of parental leave available for each child amounts to a total of 18 working weeks per child. Both parents have an equal separate entitlement to parental leave.
There was a commitment in the Programme for Government to increase paid leave for parents for the first year of a child’s life. It’s not yet known whether maternity and paternity benefit will be further expanded in the upcoming budget. Maternity benefit is paid for 26 weeks at a rate of €235 per week.
This year’s budget for the Department of Social Protection provides for expenditure of around €266million on the maternity benefit scheme.
According to a parliamentary question tabled by Fianna Fáil’s Anne Rabbitte, the estimated additional cost of extending the duration of
Maternity benefit is €235 a week 10,000 fathers get paternity benefit
maternity benefit is €10million for each extra week. Paternity benefit, meanwhile, was introduced in September of last year for the first time and provides a benefit payment of €235 per week to cover two weeks’ paternity leave, to be taken within 26 weeks of the birth of the baby.
According to the most recent figures, there were 5,013 claims for the payment made between September and December, or €2,017,671. It is understood that more recent figures up until March indicate that around 10,000 fathers are in receipt of the payment.