It has been announced that on Friday 8th March 2013 the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Mr Alan Shatter, T.D., signed regulations extending parental leave from 14 weeks to 18 weeks.
The changes give effect to EU Council Directive 2010/18/EU of 8 March 2010 which implements a revised Framework Agreement on parental leave concluded by the European Social Partners, and in line with the recent increases passed in the UK and Northern Ireland.
On making the Regulations the Minister commented: "It is important that we support parents of young children in the difficult balancing act of caring for a young family and working." The Regulations also allow parents returning from back to work from parental leave to request a change in their working hours or pattern. Employers must consider such a request but are not required to grant it.
Minister Shatter continued: "I am firmly of the belief that supports such as Parental Leave are very important because they give mothers and fathers an equal role in the caring of children. This is important on many levels, not least in breaking down stereotypes about child care. I also hope that it will encourage and enable working women to remain in the workforce after they have children".
The Act giving effect to this is not yet available however when contacted the Oireachtas said that this will be available shortly. Having been given a deadline of the 8th March 2013 to transpose this directive, and having not done so until very late in the day on Friday 8th, the normal procedures we would be used to with a Bill being enacted (such as the legislation being available for viewing) appear to be somewhat missing in this case, as the priority would have been to ensure we do not miss yet another EU deadline for the transposition of Legislation (as we did with the Agency Workers and Fixed Term Workers Acts).
This new regulations apply to all children who currently qualify for parental leave – children under 8 years of age, or in the case of child with a disability or long-term illness, under 16 years of age.
