Irish family leave lags behind rest of EU

Prof Peter Moss from the University of London said: “Ireland is the only EU member state with no period of well-paid leave; its whole policy assumes women are still primarily responsible for the care of young children.”

In particular, Ireland has no paternity leave. Most other European countries offer two weeks’ paid paternity leave at the time of the birth of a child.

“Ireland lags behind the rest of Europe on family leave, with 40 weeks of maternity leave — 26 weeks paid at a low flat rate and the rest unpaid, no paternity leave and 18 weeks’ parental leave — all unpaid,” said Prof Moss.

He will address a conference today, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and Start Strong, ahead of the Family Leave Bill, due to be published this autumn.

Start Strong is a coalition of organisations and individuals seeking to advance children’s early care and education in Ireland.

Its director, Ciarín de Buis, said that while maternity benefit had improved in the last 15 years, Ireland’s leave policies, as a whole, offered little support to families with young children.

Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Orla O’Connor, said the reconciliation of work and family life is central to promoting greater equality in society.

“The forthcoming Family Leave Bill should ensure greater sharing of care responsibilities between women and men,” she said.

“As it stands, women do the majority of care work and subsequently, the majority of those in part-time, precarious work are women. This has a massive impact on women’s economic independence, with 50% of women earning less than €20,000 a year.”