Parent’s Leave & Benefit Extended
4th July 2022
Parents can now avail of 7 weeks’ paid Parent’s Leave and Benefit, as part of measures introduced by Ministers Heather Humphreys and Roderic O’Gorman on July 1st, 2022.
The measures will see the number of weeks that parents can take time off work, with financial support from the State, increase from 5 weeks to 7 weeks.
The support applies to both parents and is part of the government’s ambition to ensure that parents can enjoy meaningful quality time with their new-born in the knowledge they will be financially supported.
Parent’s Leave and Benefit is available to anyone with a child under 2 years of age or who has adopted a child within the last 2 years. The take-up of Parent’s Leave and Benefit has increased three-fold since 2020. In 2021, a total of 51,400 parents were supported – compared to just 16,700 in 2020.
Since the start of 2022, the total number of applications awarded reached over 28,000.Speaking on the announcement, Minister Humphreys and Minister O’Gorman stated that they are committed to a further expansion of Parent’s Leave and Benefit to 9 weeks in line with the Work Life Balance Directive.
Minister Humphreys commented: “I’m delighted that from today {July 1st}, tens of thousands of families across the country will benefit from 7 weeks’ paid parent’s leave and benefit.
“This is a support that we have increased over several Budgets and the significant raise in take-up demonstrates just how popular it is with parents.
“I believe strongly that the first few weeks and months spent with a new-born son or daughter is so important.
“Today’s measure will see the number of weeks of paid leave each parent can take increase from 5 to 7.
“I’m committed to working closely with my colleague, Minister O’Gorman, in delivering further increases in this support.
“Because by doing so, we will ensure that mothers and fathers who experience that special occasion of welcoming their child into the world, will know that their State supports them.”
AIB Announces Extended Paid Leave
AIB also announced that they have extended their existing fully paid Parents Leave offering by an additional two weeks. This means that every parent who works with AIB is entitled to seven weeks fully paid leave in the first two years of their child’s life. Since its introduction in 2019, AIB has consistently offered Parent’s Leave on a full pay basis for employees.
AIB Chief People Officer Geraldine Casey said: “Supporting colleagues with progressive family leave policies has been an important element of our strategy to build an inclusive and diverse culture in AIB. This enhancement to our Parent’s Leave offering provides parents with the financial support to take additional leave during the precious time that is the first two years of their child’s life and is part of our wide suite of family leave measures to support working parents. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive organisation that creates an environment in which our employees can develop and flourish.”
We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive organisation that creates an environment in which our employees can develop and flourish.”
