The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael McDowell, T.D., announced today that the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006 has been signed into law following its passage through both houses of the Oireachtas. All provisions of the Act came into force today 18 May 2006.
The Act fulfils the Government's commitment in the Sustaining Progress Partnership Agreement to amend the existing parental leave legislation to implement the agreed recommendations of a social partnership working group arising from their review of the provisions of the Parental Leave Act 1998. It also fulfils the commitments in the Agreed Programme for Government in relation to improving the existing parental leave scheme.
Making the announcement the Minister said, "This new legislation offers improved choice and flexibility to working parents in how they use their parental leave entitlement. The leave may now be taken in a broken format over a longer period of time. The upper age limit for an eligible child has been increased to 8 years and to 16 years in the case of a child with a disability".
The Act also extends the existing force majeure leave (emergency leave) arrangements to include persons in a close relationship of domestic dependency, including same-sex couples.
The Minister said, "This is a very significant provision which takes account of the reality of many domestic relationships where in an emergency situation, arising from the illness or injury of a person who resides with the employee, one reasonably relies on the other to make arrangements for the provision of care."
The new Act provides for the following:
- raising the maximum age of the eligible child from 5 to 8 years;
- an increase in the maximum age of the eligible child to 16 years in the case of children with disabilities;
- extension of parental leave entitlements to persons acting in loco parentis in respect of an eligible child;
- extension of the force majeure provisions to include persons in a relationship of domestic dependency, including same-sex partners;
- a statutory entitlement to take the 14 weeks parental leave in separate blocks of a minimum of 6 continuous weeks, or more favourable terms with the agreement of the employer;
- the transfer of parental leave entitlements from one parent to another if both parents are employed by the same employer, subject to the employer's agreement;
- that an employee who falls ill while on parental leave and as a result is unable to care for the child may suspend the parental leave for the duration of the illness following which period the parental leave recommences;
- provision for statutory codes of practice on the manner in which parental leave and force majeure leave might be taken and the manner in which an employer can terminate parental leave.
The Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006 will be available shortly on www.oireachtas.ie and on the Department's website www.justice.ie.
18 May 2006
Note to Editors
The Report of the Working Group on the Review of the Parental Leave Act 1998 and the 1998 Act are available on www.justice.ie.
In accordance with section 28 of the Parental Leave Act 1998 and a commitment in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, a Working Group comprising the social partners, relevant Government Departments and the Equality Authority, carried out a review of the Act in 2001. The Working Group was chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and comprised representatives from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions; the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation; the National Women's Council of Ireland (representing the Community & Voluntary Pillar); the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society Ltd. (representing the Farming Pillar); the Departments of Finance; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and Social (Community) and Family Affairs and the Equality Authority.
The Parental Leave Act 1998 transposed the Parental Leave Directive (96/34/EC) into Irish law and came into force on 3 December 1998. The Act provided an individual and non-transferable entitlement to parents to 14 weeks unpaid leave from work per child to take care of young children. The Act provided that leave must be taken before the child reaches 5 years of age, except in certain circumstances in the case of an adopted child.
The 1998 Act also provided an entitlement to limited paid force majeure leave for urgent family reasons owing to the injury or illness of an immediate family member, in circumstances where the presence of the employee, at the place where the family member is ill or injured, is indispensable. The employee may not be absent on force majeure leave for more than 3 days in any period of 12 consecutive months or 5 days in any period of 36 consecutive months. During an absence on force majeure leave an employee is regarded as being in the employment of the employer, and retains all of his or her employment rights.