{"id":1518,"date":"2021-03-24T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T17:29:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T17:29:00","slug":"extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8211; Government needs to ramp up investment for paid parental leave and streamline legislation to make it family-friendly, says Jennifer Whitmore TD<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Family Leave Bill in the D\u00e1il today, Social Democrats spokesperson for Children, Jennifer Whitmore, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I welcome the extension of paid parental leave to five weeks, the Government needs to ramp up investment in this area as Ireland still falls far short of its European counterparts. Parents are desperate for much-needed certainty, particularly as Covid has meant many of them taking early parental leave to cover the gaps in childcare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is an urgent need to implement in full the EU Directive relating to parental leave and work-life balance and to streamline legislation, which is currently too cumbersome for families to navigate. Between maternity, paternity and parental leave, there are numerous variations, which is causing a lot of unnecessary confusion as to what parents are really entitled to and when.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reality is that there is still a 130-week gap between the end of all parental leave and the start of ECCE early education in this country. Families end up having to pay more in high-cost childcare as a result. Women in particular are disproportionately affected by shortfalls in parental leave legislation and as a result continue to be underrepresented in the workforce and face a widening gender pay gap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLone parents have also been overlooked in this legislation. The Government had an opportunity to address the high rate of lone parents experiencing poverty by extending paid parental leave for them and increasing the payment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverall, the aim should be full and unfettered supports for families, including working families who have been struggling to manage the competing demands of family life. I have submitted amendments to this Bill to ensure the Minister will report on the progress of further paid parental leave, consider increasing payments to lone parents and streamline all legislation to make it simple and manageable for parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s Bill is a step in the right direction, but we still have some distance left to travel before parents in Ireland enjoy the same rights as their European neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>March 24, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; Government needs to ramp up investment for paid parental leave and streamline legislation to make it family-friendly, says Jennifer Whitmore TD Speaking on the Family Leave Bill in the D\u00e1il today, Social Democrats spokesperson for Children, Jennifer Whitmore, said: \u201cWhile I welcome the extension of paid parental leave to five weeks, the Government needs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8211; Government needs to ramp up investment for paid parental leave and streamline legislation to make it family-friendly, says Jennifer Whitmore TD Speaking on the Family Leave Bill in the D\u00e1il today, Social Democrats spokesperson for Children, Jennifer Whitmore, said: \u201cWhile I welcome the extension of paid parental leave to five weeks, the Government needs [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\"},\"headline\":\"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\"},\"wordCount\":371,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Jennifer Whitmore\",\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\",\"name\":\"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/\",\"name\":\"Social Democrats\",\"description\":\"Change Ireland for the better\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Social Democrats\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"width\":846,\"height\":358,\"caption\":\"The Social Democrats\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\",\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/zoo-admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/","og_locale":"ga_IE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats","og_description":"&#8211; Government needs to ramp up investment for paid parental leave and streamline legislation to make it family-friendly, says Jennifer Whitmore TD Speaking on the Family Leave Bill in the D\u00e1il today, Social Democrats spokesperson for Children, Jennifer Whitmore, said: \u201cWhile I welcome the extension of paid parental leave to five weeks, the Government needs [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/","og_site_name":"Social Democrats","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","article_published_time":"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ZOO Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SocDems","twitter_site":"@SocDems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZOO Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/"},"author":{"name":"ZOO Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960"},"headline":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe","datePublished":"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/"},"wordCount":371,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg","articleSection":["Jennifer Whitmore","Press Release"],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/","name":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe - Social Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg","datePublished":"2021-03-24T17:29:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ga-IE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/4449-44-scaled-1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/extension-of-parental-leave-is-welcome-but-we-still-lag-behind-europe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Extension of parental leave is welcome \u2013 but we still lag behind Europe"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","name":"Social Democrats","description":"Change Ireland for the better","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization","name":"The Social Democrats","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","width":846,"height":358,"caption":"The Social Democrats"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960","name":"ZOO Admin","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/zoo-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}