Bill will improve parental leave terms

The Government is to introduce new legislation to improve parental leave entitlements.

The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, said yesterday that in future parents would be able to take 14 weeks' leave in separate blocks of a minimum of six weeks.

Until now parents had to take parental leave before their child reached five years of age. However, the new Bill, to be published by the end of the year, will raise the maximum age of the child to eight years. This will be increased to 16 years if the child is disabled.

The new legislation will also extend parental leave entitlements to persons acting in loco parentis in respect of an eligible child.

The Bill will also allow for an employee who falls ill while on parental leave and who, as a result, is unable to care for the child to benefit from sick leave for the duration of the illness.

Mr O'Dea said the new legislation would enhance the entitlement of employees to take time off to care for their children.

The Minister said that the new Bill was being prepared on foot of the recommendations of the Working Group on the Review of the Parental Leave Act which the Government had agreed to implement as part of the Sustaining Progress agreement.

Meanwhile, Senator John Minihan of the Progressive Democrats yesterday said the State should allow parents' groups to use school premises to operate voluntary breakfast and homework clubs for children.

He said he welcomed the extension of the parental leave entitlement, but much more needed to be done to solve the country's childcare problems. The State had committed significant resources to the school building programme, but most schools were only utilised between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

He suggested that schools should be viewed as a community resource and that parents' groups should be allowed use the facilities to provide breakfast or homework clubs or other activities outside teaching hours in the mornings and in the evenings.

"Childcare is a huge headache for most parents, and we need to think outside the box on this issue to make the maximum use of available resources," Senator Minihan said.