Parents' leave is to be extended to nine weeks for both fathers and mothers, Roderic O'Gorman, the children's minister, has promised. Mr O'Gorman wants to considerably increase the amount of paid leave for mothers and fathers and is planning to extend parents' leave from the current two weeks to nine weeks. "Our focus, of extending paid leave, is, at the moment, on parents' leave, which applies to both parents and both parents are treated equally, with the working assumption that we expect both parents to be involved in the care of the child in those early years," Mr O'Gorman said. He said maternity leave was created first and paternity leave was "added in quite late", so is not as established. He added: "I like the concept of parents' leave, where it is pure equality.

Source: Irish Examiner November 29, 2020 18:40 UTC