Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 March 2022
461. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of providing an additional two week parent’s leave and benefit; the cost of increasing the leave and benefit from five to seven weeks per child as scheduled from August 2022; and the estimated cost of increasing the leave and benefit from seven to eight weeks in tabular form. [15800/22]
View answerParent's Leave and Benefit are currently available for five weeks to all eligible parents of children born or adopted from 1 November 2019 and must be used within the first two years of the child’s life or adoption. Parent’s Benefit is paid at €250 per week - the same rate as Maternity, Paternity and Adoptive Benefits.
Provision was made in Budget 2022 to increase the number of weeks of Parent's Leave and Benefit available to eligible parents from five weeks to seven weeks from July 2022.
The estimated cost of these additional two weeks in 2022 and for a full year are presented in the Table below. The estimated full year cost of extending parent's benefit by a further week, to eight weeks is also presented.
|
Measure |
Estimated Cost in 2022 |
Estimated Full Year Cost |
|
Increase Parent’s Benefit from five weeks to seven weeks |
€9.4 million |
€19.5 million |
|
Increase Parent’s Benefit from seven weeks to eight weeks |
N/A |
€9.75 million |
The estimated costs shown are based on the estimated number of recipients in 2022. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
