Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 December 2020
91. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason the extension to maternity leave is not being introduced until April 2021 as opposed to immediate introduction after budget 2021 or January 2021. [40761/20]
Amharc ar fhreagra106. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when legislation will be advanced to enact changes announced in budget 2021 on parental leave; the engagement he has had with the Minister for Social Protection to ensure there is no undue delay for applicants to avail of this additional leave; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40758/20]
Amharc ar fhreagra120. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason the extension to maternity leave is not being introduced until April 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40768/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am taking this on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Louise O'Reilly. Why is the extension to maternity leave not being introduced until April 2021 as opposed to an immediate introduction after the budget or in January 2021?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 91, 106 and 120 together.
I am pleased to confirm that, in order to support parents of children born during the strict lockdown measures, the Government intends to extend parents' leave from two weeks to five weeks for each parent of all children born or adopted on or after 1 November 2019. The Government also intends to extend the period in which parents' leave can be taken up until that child turns two years or, in the case of an adoption, two years after the adoption placement date of the child. This extension will apply to parents who may have already availed of their existing entitlements. Heads of a Bill to effect these changes are being drafted in the Department and I intend to bring these to Government next Tuesday for approval.
Payment of parents' benefit is a matter for the Minister for Social Protection and I understand that some adjustments will be needed to the relevant IT systems in that Department and time will be taken to make those changes. The estimated timescale for the necessary updates being put in place in the pay systems is April 2021 However, I am examining whether it may be possible for parents' leave to be taken in advance of these changes and the benefit claimed retrospectively, once the legislation has been enacted. I will take advice from parliamentary counsel to ensure that it is possible to draft the legislation in this way. I will ensure that parents are fully informed of their entitlements in this regard as soon as possible.
The Minister for Social Protection, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I have discussed this issue with the view to progressing it as quickly as possible. The extension to parents' leave and benefit follows a number of advancements in parents' leave in recent years, including the introduction of parents' leave and benefit in 2019 and the extension of unpaid parental leave to 26 weeks in September this year for a child under 12 years.
As part of the same legislation that will deal with the issue of parents' leave, I will also bring proposals on adoptive leave. This will allow all adopting couples, whether same sex or opposite sex, to have the right to select which of them would be the qualified adopter for the purposes of taking adoptive leave and benefit. This is an important provision which was committed to in the programme for Government. The proposed adoptive leave proposals will enable married male same-sex adopting couples to be eligible for adoptive leave. As it stands at present, the Adoptive Leave Act 2005 allows only an adoptive mother to take adoptive leave. The new provisions would enable either the adopting mother or the adopting father to be eligible to take adoptive leave once the choice has been made by the couple.
I thank the Minister. As a parent, I welcome any extension in parental leave or maternity leave, although my children are probably past that stage. We did see a number of very genuine calls during the Covid pandemic for an extension, perhaps even a once-off emergency extension to maternity leave, for very valid reasons. People were trying to juggle childcare or get back to work during the pandemic and people felt robbed of certain time in the early years, particularly with extended family. It would have been fantastic if this had been introduced immediately after the budget. I seek clarification on several points. Is the Minister stating he hopes it might be able to be introduced in January and dealt with retrospectively? Perhaps I understood this incorrectly. I have another question that I will ask later.
I am not sure whether the other Deputies are in the room.
Deputy McAuliffe is at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts and gave his apologies.
We cannot grant additional leave until the legislation is passed. Once the legislation is passed the leave can be granted. There is a technical issue with regard to the arrangements for payment of the benefit. The Department of Social Protection is under a lot of pressure at present with the Covid payments. It is doing a huge amount more than it normally would. We will try to speed up the process so that benefit can be provided quickly but once the legislation is passed we will try to make it possible for someone to take leave and retrospectively claim the payments once the benefit issue has been sorted. When I bring the legislation through the House I will be able to provide more clarity on it. It is to allow the leave to be taken as quickly as possible.
I thank the Minister. On a further point of clarification, let us say somebody is due to return from maternity leave at the start of December and their child is not two years old yet, are they able to take that additional leave sometime next year or is that not an option? While that would be welcome, it can be difficult for many people to try to organise childcare and also try to organise their own job, depending on what job they do. Many people will take some unpaid leave and some parental leave because to take it all together, in reality, is the best way for people to organise this. It can be difficult, if they have a childcare place, to dip out of that childcare place for a number of weeks of parental leave, and that is why people tend to try to take it together in a block. Is the Minister saying that if somebody started back to work on 1 December and their child is one year old, they can take that in the next year?
For either the extra three weeks leave for parents who had their child during the last year, or the full five weeks leave for new parents of children going forward, that can only be taken once the legislation is passed. We have to get the legislation passed first. However, once the legislation is passed, if a parent took their two weeks of original parents leave in January of this year, they will be able to take the additional three weeks leave in the forthcoming year. It is provided to make sure that parents who had children during the lockdown period, and who were only able to avail of two weeks leave in that period, will now be able to enjoy the additional three weeks leave.
