Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2026
902. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the percentage and number of women, who availed of their full entitlement of parents leave in each of the years 2020 to 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9595/26]
View answer903. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the percentage and number of men that availed of their full entitlement of parents leave in each of the years 2020 to 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9596/26]
View answer904. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the percentage and number of men that availed of their full entitlement of paternity leave in each of the years 2020 to 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9597/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 902, 903 and 904 together.
There have been significant developments in entitlements for parents of working families in recent years. The Government is committed to supporting workers, including by extending paid leave for parents to allow them to spend more time with their child during their earliest years.
The Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 provides the relevant parent (other than the mother of the child) with 2 weeks paid paternity leave. S.6(5) of the Act limits this entitlement in the case of multiple births to a single period of leave.
Paternity Benefit claims registered and awarded, by year, can be seen in the following table:
|
Year |
Registered |
Awarded |
|
2020 |
24,884 |
24,076 |
|
2021 |
28,832 |
26,539 |
|
2022 |
28,246 |
27,375 |
|
2023 |
29,177 |
27,111 |
|
2024 |
29,751 |
27,729 |
|
2025 |
30,198 |
29,955 |
The publication “Employment Analysis of Maternity and Paternity Benefits” was first published in June 2020 with a follow up release in May 2023 as part of the CSO’s Frontier Series Outputs. CSO Frontier Series may use new methods which are under development and / or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. Details on this release can be found on the CSO website. The most recent publication covers the period 2019 to 2022 and relates to those who received a benefit payment from the Department of Social Protection in the reference year. This release is currently being updated, incorporating the latest data available. The exact release date will be added to the CSO release calendar prior to publication.
