The Small Business Column with Kehlan Kirwan 

In this week’s column, Kehlan Kirwan looks at proposals to allow paid paternity leave to be given to new fathers and why it makes sense to introduce it    

Before the last budget was announced, many organisations sent a wishlist to the Department of Finance in an effort to influence policy. Start-up Ireland had gathered suggestions from its members and those in the start-up community about what policies they want to see change. One of those involved paternity leave.

They suggested that, in order to solve the problem of inequality in the workplace for women, men’s paternity leave should be increased and be paid in order to take the question of having children out of the decision process when women apply for jobs. If you get maternity leave, so does every man in the office when their child is born.