‘Fathers should receive paid paternity leave’

NEW dads should get paid paternity leave after their baby is born, the head of the Equality Authority (EA) has urged on the eve of Father’s Day.

Ireland has maternity, parental and adoptive leave but, as yet, has no statutory paid paternity leave at the time of a child’s birth.

EA chief executive, Niall Crowley, said Ireland was out of step with the rest of Europe because workers were not entitled to paid paternity and paternal leave.

While some employers were offering paid paternity leave as a goodwill gesture to employees, it was not a statutory entitlement, said Mr Crowley.

There was also a huge imbalance in the taking of parental leave in Ireland, with more than 80% taken by women.

Developing paid parental leave would make it more accessible to men and women, he said.

Mr Crowley also pointed out that the right to flexible working was also underdeveloped in Ireland.

“Men and women can apply for flexible working in Ireland but what we find is that it is predominantly women who avail of the arrangement,” he said.

“We need a more equal sharing of caring and domestic responsibilities between men and women in Ireland,” said Mr Crowley.

“I think Irish society is failing fathers and mothers. It is failing to promote and support a better sharing of caring between men and women. Caring is still largely done by women, which is bad for fathers and mothers.”

A shift in the way we see gender roles, both by men and women, was needed, he stressed.

The EA’s British counterpart, the Equal Opportunities Commission, said that, like mothers, many fathers were frustrated at the lack of time they had with their children.

Its research showed that most fathers now believed they were equally important in looking after their baby.

In Britain, dads receive two weeks of paid paternity leave and the commission is looking for additional paternity leave.

And, said the commission, while it was widely accepted by employers that mothers would make use of the British government’s new flexible working arrangements to combine their roles as carers and workers, it was still less accepted for fathers to do so.