Parents are to be given the right to take a total of three months' child-care leave from employment for each child under eight years. Legislation to effect this is due to be introduced later this year.
They will not have to take the three months all at once, but will be able to use it over a number of years while their children are young. They will also be able to take it in the form of one or more days a week off work.
Employers will not have to pay their staff while they are on leave, but officials are said to favour the payment of an allowance to parents for one month's leave, with the remainder unpaid.
Each parent will be entitled to the three months' leave for each child under eight years of age in the family.
An employer who refuses a parent's request for leave at a particular time will be obliged to show good cause for the refusal.
The Cabinet will shortly be given an outline of the Parental Leave Bill, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, announced yesterday.
In addition to the three months' child-care leave, the Bill will give parents a right to time off work for urgent family reasons.
The legislation arises from an EU directive which leaves open the question of whether parents will be paid while on leave.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is believed to have been pressing for parents to be paid for the three months.
Mr O'Donoghue made his announcement yesterday at a meeting in Dublin Castle of the Partnership 2000 Expert Working Group on Child Care. The meeting continues today.
He also announced that his Department had succeeded in getting child care included as a heading in the mid-term review of the present round of EU funding.
The move means funding will be made available for child-care services under the programme. Almost £800,000 has been allocated for developing child-care services this year and next.
The present round of EU funding ends next year, but Mr O'Donoghue stated: "Equal opportunities will be one of the key pillars in the post-1999 round of EU funding and, as the Minister with responsibility for equal opportunity policy, it is my intention to draw down as much funding as possible for child-care provision through the equal opportunity measures."
Mr O'Donoghue announced that a further £2.6 million would be spent on improving child-care services, mainly in disadvantaged areas.
The main purpose of the scheme is to fund voluntary and community groups to provide a child-care service. This is to enable mothers - or fathers, where they are the main child-rearers - to go out to work or to enter education or training.
Projects in 73 areas, half of them in Dublin, have been receiving funding for this purpose under a pilot project.
"As the Minister who also has responsibility for the Justice portfolio, I am acutely aware that a lot of crime has its origins in disadvantage and social exclusion", Mr O'Donoghue said. "The development of a child-care infrastructure will give children in disadvantaged areas the chance to learn, to be sociable and to develop in safe and supportive surroundings.
"It will give their parents an opportunity to have a second chance in life. While their children are availing of child-care services, the parents have an opportunity to avail of courses and training to better themselves and increase their chances of obtaining employment, which in turn will enable them to make the best of their own abilities and ultimately to be better parents."
But child-care facilities were also needed outside disadvantaged areas. Within the next five years, 55 per cent of new jobs would go to women, he said.
IBEC, the employers' organisation, would be launching a childcare initiative in partnership with his Department, the Minister said. Details of this initiative are due to be announced shortly.