Vol. 492 No. 4
265 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the estimated annual cost of paying benefit from the Social Insurance Fund at unemployment benefit rates to those likely to take parental leave under the Parental Leave Bill, 1998. [14200/98]
EU Directive 96/34/EC gives effect to a framework agreement on parental leave, which was concluded at EU level by employer and trade union interests. The framework agreement provides all employees, both men and women, with the right to at least three months unpaid leave for each child they are responsible for.
The Parental Leave Bill, 1998, which is currently before the Oireachtas, provides for 14 weeks non-transferable leave for parents of children born on or before 3 June 1996. This leave can be taken as a continuous block or, by agreement between employer and employee, as a number of broken periods. The leave must be taken before the child is aged five and, although the leave is unpaid, employees will retain other employment rights during the period of leave.
The cost of any possible parental leave benefit scheme depends to a large extent on the level of take-up. International experience indicates that take-up levels are determined by a number of factors, including the levels of benefit available, flexibility of the leave arrangements, non-transferability of leave between parents and prevailing social attitudes. Based on the limited information available, it is estimated that the introduction of a parental leave benefit scheme lasting for 14 weeks and giving payment rates similar to unemployment benefit could cost in the region of £26 million per year. The options for funding such a scheme would have to be considered in the con-text of the very substantial medium-term pressures on the Social Insurance Fund which are highlighted in the national pensions policy initiative report of the Pensions Board, which I received last month.
