Dad's the word

Ciaran Whooley (31), a manager with the Dublin subsidiary of US software company Global Investment Systems, is father of twins Stephen and Kevin, aged 27 months

Ciaran is in his office every morning at 8 a.m. and "in general I manage to get out by 6 or 6.30" in the evenings. "My main aim each day is to get home before 7.30 p.m. to see [the twins]."

The office has been staffed up and he now has a team of four working for him, but for his first 18 months with the company it was usually 7.30 or 8 p.m. before he left for home.

Almost everyone in the office is a parent of young children "and so we make a conscious effort to get everyone wrapped up and out by a civilised hour".

But even with his new, improved hours Ciaran gets to see very little of his children during the week. They go to bed at 7.30 p.m., so if he is delayed at work he will miss seeing them. They are usually still asleep when he is leaving the house at 7.30 a.m.

His job involves providing support to customers who use the company's products, as well as assisting new customers during the sale of the product and with its installation. He travels a lot.

"A lot of the growth in customers came in the first 18 months so that meant I was on the road an awful lot, which was tough for my wife.

"I wouldn't have felt comfortable with that if I didn't see there was light at the end of the tunnel." That light was the taking on of extra staff who now share the travel burden.

However, Ciaran's job still involves a lot of travel. In July he made five work-related trips abroad. This month he will spend a few days in the company HQ in New Jersey.

At the weekends he tries to go somewhere with the children, very often to the swimming pool at Monkstown. He also tries to take them for one morning so his wife, Jean, can get a lie-in. "I also try to sneak in a game of golf," he admits.

Jean works with Chase Manhattan and has been working part-time since the birth of their sons. She works two days one week and three the next. Grandparents help out and they have an au pair, their third.

Asked if he foresees a greater balance developing between work and family time in the future, he says that is a possibility, but only to a limited extent. "At the end of the day I am the family breadwinner and if that's what it takes, that's what it takes." The fact that he gives up family time for his job is factored in to the remuneration he receives, he says.

"The company, from the managing director down, is a very family-orientated company and recognises that people have a family life as well. There is no concept of face time."

The company employs about 50 worldwide, including eight in Dublin. Staff in Dublin get 20 days' annual leave. There is no paternity leave.

Peter Robbins (36), group product manager with SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, is father of Sophie (two) and two-month-old Will

These days Peter Robbins is busy with the launch of a new product on the Irish market called NiQuitin CQ, a nicotine replacement product which includes a "behavioural support programme".

Peter would have been at the World Conference on Tobacco Or Health in Chicago in August had it not been for the fact his wife, Aine, had just given birth to the couple's second child. "The birth of Will took precedence."

Business is booming for SmithKline's products. With the Celtic Tiger in full roar and traffic jams the order of the day, there is a huge demand for its over-the-counter pain relief and indigestion relief products. Also, SmithKline Beecham is in the process of merging with another pharmaceutical multinational, Glaxo-Wellcome, and Peter and his family are in the process of moving house.

"I share night duty with Aine in terms of feeds and so on, and in the last three or four weeks I've been averaging about 90 minutes per night."

Peter and Aine's first child, Sophie, is two years old. They live in Blackrock and Peter's office is in Dun Laoghaire. At 7 a.m. each morning he goes for a walk on the pier and is in the office by 7.30 a.m. He goes home at 7 p.m. or 7.30 p.m. most evenings, and might be away from home on business four nights a month.

Because Sophie doesn't go to bed until around 10 p.m. Peter gets to see her every evening. "We usually go to the park or down to the sea front." As Will is not such a great sleeper, Peter gets to see him during the night.

Peter took holidays to coincide with Will's birth. When asked if his company gave paternity leave to its employees, he said he didn't know.

Aine took a year off from her job as an art teacher during Sophie's first year and returned to work part-time afterwards. The cost of child care meant that the net effect of her part-time work on the household income was nil. She has now taken another year's leave to spend time with Will. Both Peter and Aine believe it is beneficial to a child's development if the first year can be spent in the care of a parent.

Asked if he thinks a better balance could be established between hours spent at work and at home, Peter says he doesn't think 50 to 60 hours a week at work is that bad. "I don't think it's unreasonable. Working 40 hours a week and being home at 6 would be an alien concept for me."

At the weekends he likes to go on outings with the family and to visit grandparents. He enjoys his work and is confident that in the event of a family crisis his (female) boss would be understanding if he had to drop everything and run. It hasn't happened to date.

John Reynolds (41), executive director of IIB Bank, is father of Sean (nine) and Bearach (six)

Business goes through peaks and troughs when you're in merchant banking, but for the past five years it's been almost all peaks for IIB Bank, according to John Reynolds.

An executive director of the bank, John also manages the bank's lending department which has a staff of approximately 70.

The sums of money involved are substantial. Total bank lending would be in the region of £3.5 billion, of which Irish lending would be approximately £2.4 billion.

Typical tasks in an average week would be business negotiations, personnel management, meeting with customers and taking part in strategy sessions. John is in the office by 7.45 a.m. and leaves some time between 6.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

"No, I don't think it's too long. The job is enjoyable and once I clock off I tend not to bring work home with me to any huge extent."

John doesn't see the two children in the mornings but usually does in the evenings. He says the flipside of working a relatively long day is that he feels comfortable taking time out to attend events such as school concerts. "I generally make it my business to get there and I've caught most of what was important."

With increased responsibilities in recent years combined with the booming economy, John says his working day has not necessarily become any longer, but is more intense. "Some evenings when I get home I may be a bit mentally drained and not as responsive as I'd like to be."

His wife Sinead works on a flexible basis from home which, he says, allows him have a more rigid job. At the weekend he "picks up the slack".

It is in the nature of his job that he puts in the hours he does, and it couldn't be done properly otherwise. "But when I come home the quality of that time is up to me." Banking involves people staying in touch with what's happening.

John has never encountered anyone from the banking sector taking paternity leave.