The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 which was enacted in July 2016 introduced a new scheme of paternity leave and an associated social welfare payment of paternity benefit from the 1st September 2016. It is paid for 2 weeks and is available for any child born or adopted on or after 1 September 2016. The 2018 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of nearly €16 million for the paternity benefit scheme.
The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of paternity benefit is approximately €5.2 million for each extra week. The table below estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of paternity benefit above its current 2 week duration at the current weekly rate of €240. It should be noted that Budget 2018 provided for the weekly rate of payment to be increased by €5 per week to €240 from 26 March 2018.
Estimated annual cost of increasing the duration of Paternity Benefit based on 2018 rates
No. of additional weeks
|
Estimated cost (€m)
|
1
|
5.2
|
2
|
10.4
|
3
|
15.6
|
4
|
20.8
|
These estimates are based on the cost for a full year and assume that any increase in duration is implemented from the beginning of the year. The cost in the first year would depend on the implementation date that the increase in duration would take effect. This cost would be proportional to the full year cost.