Parental Leave in Ireland

Parental Leave allows parents to take unpaid leave from their jobs to spend time with their children. The leave must be taken before the child reaches 12 years of age (exceptions apply in the case of children who are adopted or disabled). However, where a child is approaching the age threshold set out above and the employee has more than 3 months but less than 12 months service, they will be entitled to pro-rata parental leave.

The Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2019 sets out an allowance of 26 weeks per child.

Who is entitled to parental leave?

• A parent
• The adoptive parent
• A person acting as a parent for the child

How can the leave be taken?

• One continuous period of leave or
• Separate blocks of a minimum of 6 weeks each
• If the Employer consents, broken down into working days and/or hours

There must be a gap of at least 10 weeks between periods of parental leave.

In summary, the main points from the Act are:

• The employee must have 12 months of continuous service to qualify. However, where the employee has more than three months’ but less than one year’s service, and where the child is approaching the age threshold, the employee will be entitled to one week’s leave for every month of continuous employment completed with the employer.
• An employee cannot transfer the leave to the other parent except in the case where one parent dies. Where both parents work for the same employers, they may transfer their Parental Leave entitlement to each other – please note that currently there is a move towards taking this right away so that both parents are encouraged to take their own entitlement and cannot transfer to the other.
• The parental leave operates on a use it or lose it basis.
• It cannot be taken before the date of birth. Similarly, in the case of adoption, it cannot be taken before the date of placement.
• It is protected leave, so employees accrue annual leave and public holiday entitlements and all their other conditions of employment remain the same.
• The employee must give their employer a minimum of four weeks written notice of their intention to take this leave.