Ministers take swing at ‘men play golf on paternity leave’ dig

MINISTERS have distanced themselves from reports of an unidentified minister telling a recent Cabinet sub-committee that men were spending their paternity leave playing golf.

The claim was reportedly made at a meeting of a sub-committee on social policy, chaired by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The mystery commenter suggested parents are using paternity leave ‘to go play golf’ rather than what it was provided for, the Irish Times reported this week. Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty denied making the remark. She said: ‘There is no evidence of parents doing anything other than spending time with their babies.’

Independent Alliance junior minister John Halligan said it was ‘a very sweeping and an appalling claim to make’. He added: ‘It seriously undervalues the contribution fathers make and want to make to raising their children.’ Fianna Fáil’s Social Protection spokesman Willie O’Dea said: ‘This daft notion was just the latest example of how the Government is existing in some sort of theatre of the absurd.’

He added: ‘Whoever made this crass remark should ’fess up, withdraw it and apologise for turning such a serious issue into a farce.’ A Government spokesman said: ‘When it comes to unsubstantiated leaks from unknown persons, we cannot comment on that. It should be noted the thrust of the meeting was to improve paternity rights and ensure more men can avail of them.’

At the meeting in which the alleged comment was made, the Taoiseach revealed plans to make parental leave mandatory – driven by statistics that show Ireland’s paternity benefit take-up rate is 62%.