The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017

The Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2006 allow parents to take parental leave from employment in respect of children in certain circumstances.

The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 (the “Bill”) proposes an extension of current parental leave entitlements and an increase in the age of children in respect of whom parental leave can be taken. 

The Parental Leave Acts currently permit parents to take 18 working weeks’ unpaid parental leave in respect of each child. The Bill would extend this entitlement to 26 weeks. Currently, parental leave can only be taken by parents of children reaching 8 years of age; however, the Bill proposes to increase the age of children in respect of whom parental leave can be taken to 12 years. 

Parents of children who have disabilities or long term illnesses may currently take parental leave up to the children reaching 16 years of age.  No change to this age limit is proposed in the Bill.

Please click here to read the current version of the Bill.

For further information, please contact your usual contact in the ByrneWallace Employment Law team.