Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2026
744. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the percentage and number of women that availed of their full entitlement of maternity leave in each of the years 2020 to 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16671/26]
View answer745. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the percentage and number of women 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. [16672/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 744 and 745 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 Maternity Protection Act 1994 and the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 provide a pregnant employee with 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave, alongside other entitlements such as breastfeeding breaks after the return to work, which have been extended to two years following the birth of the child, through the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. Furthermore, since 20 November 2024, employees can postpone their maternity leave if they require ongoing treatment for a serious health condition as set out in the Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024.
Maternity Benefit claims registered and awarded, by year, for years 2020 to 2024, can be seen in the following table:
|
Year |
Claims Registered |
Claims Awarded |
|
2020 |
41,987 |
40,293 |
|
2021 |
45,938 |
43,283 |
|
2022 |
42,131 |
40,897 |
|
2023 |
43,253 |
40,657 |
|
2024 |
42,434 |
40,121 |
Under the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019, working parents are now entitled to nine weeks of paid parent's leave for each relevant parent, to be taken in the first two years after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. Parent's Leave is an individual separate entitlement and is non-transferable between parents.
Parent's Benefit claims registered and awarded, by year, for years 2020 to 2025, can be seen in the following table. Please note that there is no disaggregated data available.
|
Year |
Claims Registered |
Claims Awarded |
|
2020 |
16,973 |
16,683 |
|
2021 |
51,972 |
51,395 |
|
2022 |
77,015 |
75,603 |
|
2023 |
76,935 |
78,189 |
|
2024 |
92,820 |
90,660 |
|
2025 |
93,671 |
95,721 |
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.
