Catherine Murphy
Question:93. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of extending parental leave and benefit by four weeks for mothers and by six weeks for fathers. [15566/24]
View answerWednesday, 10 April 2024
Questions (93)
Written answers
Parental leave is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I hold responsibility for the associated benefit payments.
Parent's Leave and Benefit are currently available for seven weeks to all eligible parents of children born or adopted from 1 November 2019 and must be availed of within the first two years of the child’s life or adoption. Parent’s Benefit is paid at €274 per week - the same rate as Maternity, Paternity and Adoptive Benefits.
Budget 2024 provided for the number of weeks of Parent's Leave and Benefit available to each eligible parent to be increased from seven weeks to nine weeks from August 2024. The estimated cost of this increase in Parent's Benefit is €10.3 million in 2024 and the overall cost for a full year is €25.6 million.
Parents who have already availed of their Parent’s Leave entitlement will also benefit from an additional two weeks leave and benefit if their child is under the age of 2 or has been placed with their parent(s) for less than two years at the date of implementation.
Nine weeks Parent’s Leave and Benefit is not transferable between parents which is in line with the provision of the EU Work Life Balance Directive. This recognises the importance of equality between men and women with regard to labour market opportunities and the equal importance of men and fathers in bringing up their children.
The estimated full-year cost of increasing Parent's Benefit by a further four weeks for mothers and for a further six weeks for fathers is approximately €68 million. This is based on the estimated number of recipients in 2024. 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. There would be further additional costs to the Exchequer as these estimates do not include the costs for staff substitution which would be a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
Any decision regarding the extension of Parental leave would be a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Decisions around the extension of the associated benefit would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.