The government must review pay-related benefits to encourage more men to avail of their paternity leave entitlement, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly.<\/p>\n
Deputy Farrelly, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on children, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cA report jointly published today the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) examines the uptake by parents of child-related leave benefits, and how this affects gender equality in the workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the key findings is that only half of new fathers in Ireland are availing of paternity benefit, with higher earning men more likely to take up their entitlement. This is leading to an imbalance between men and women when it comes to sharing childcare responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Ireland, we don\u2019t do enough to support parents. Despite improvements in recent years, we continue to lag behind other countries in terms of paid leave for parents and flexible work arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Social Democrats are committed to extending, and vastly improving, entitlement to paid leave for parents. We have proposed increasing paid parents\u2019 leave by four weeks for each parent \u2013 to a total of 13 weeks each \u2013 which would ensure that the first 12 months of a child\u2019s life can be covered by paid leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, we have called for an increase in the weekly rate to \u20ac350 for Maternity, Paternity, Adoptive and Parents\u2019 Benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo address the structural inequalities that exist \u2013 both at home and in the workplace \u2013 the government must act on the findings of this report and review the rates of paid benefits for parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 4, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government must review pay-related benefits to encourage more men to avail of their paternity leave entitlement, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly. Deputy Farrelly, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on children, said: \u201cA report jointly published today the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,296,540,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aidan-farrelly","category-childcare","category-children","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n