The proposed introduction of a full year’s paid parental leave is part of a new childcare package by Minister for Children James Reilly. This is welcome news indeed. Parental leave was introduced into Ireland in 1998, as unpaid leave, initially 14 weeks per child under age eight, increased to 18 weeks in 2013. The proposed scheme suggests that choosing to split the year between both parents could lengthen the period of the overall leave, in a move to encourage both parents to avail of it.
However, shared parental leave may not be introduced until the second half of the current coalition Government’s next term in office – so it is dependent on the current Government being re-elected.
Already the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) is out in force, warning of the significant costs to business such as recruitment, replacement and training to fill temporary vacancies.
In fact, the notion of childcare services as a public good with individual and societal benefits has been advocated by such prestigious bodies as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the National Economic and Social Council, the National Economic and Social Forum, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and the expert advisory group on the early years strategy.
The early years strategy recommends increasing investment in children’s care from 0.44 per cent of gross domestic product to the international benchmark of 1 per cent of GDP over five years. Other recommendations include extending paid parental leave; strengthening child and family support through a dedicated “child and family service”; demanding governance, accountability and quality in all childcare services; and enhancing and extending quality early childhood care and education services as a comprehensive strategy for all children aged up to six in Ireland.
Icelandic model
Ireland could introduce a system, similar to the Icelandic model, which would encourage fathers’ involvement in their children’s care. In Iceland, since 2000, nine months’ paid parental leave has been granted to parents, apportioned with three months to the mother, three months to the father and three months of joint entitlements. This leave is paid at 80 per cent of the parents’ previous wages, and could be used until the child is 18 months.
Following the economic crisis in 2008, the ceiling on payment was reduced to 75 per cent. However, since 2012, new legislation has been enacted with paid parental leave gradually being extended, so that by 2016, parents will be entitled to 12 months’ paid parental leave, with five months to the mother, five to the father and two months of joint entitlement. Parents who do not use their entitlement to parental leave forfeit it. Iceland funds paid parental leave from tax revenues.
The extension of parental leave provisions is not a new proposal. In 2013, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs published Right from the Start: Report of the Expert Advisory Group on the Early Years Strategy, mentioned earlier, which made 54 recommendations on children's care and education across 10 themes which include increased investment, supporting families, access to services, and training, professional support and regulation of providers. One of these recommendations is longer paid leave for parents, increasing incrementally each year. The aim is paid parental leave would be available at the end of the present period of paid maternity leave, so that within five years, parents may avail of one year's paid leave after each child's birth.
The strategy has also recommended the introduction of two weeks of paid paternity leave around the birth of a child – a proposal made by Tánaiste Joan Burton recently.
In Denmark, fathers are entitled to take up to two weeks of paid leave after the birth of the child and, according to the European Platform for Investing in Children, nearly all fathers make use of paternity leave. According to a Eurobarometer survey, Danes are the happiest in Europe with their family life.
James Reilly does not need an interdepartmental group on childcare investment to report to the Government on childcare by summer. The Minister could revisit the recommendations of the Report of the Expert Advisory Group on the Early Years Strategy to his department in 2013.
It has been demonstrated in Iceland and Denmark that it is possible to integrate employment and family life, that men as well as women are rejecting the “ideal worker” model and desire to spend time caring as well as working, and that this can be achieved simultaneously with economic growth.
A just society
As citizens, we need to speak up, demand that the recommendations of the early years strategy are implemented, to provide a just society for all our children, as well as those who provide paid and unpaid care.
Nevertheless, this proposal is progress. We are moving from unpaid leave to paid leave and encouraging fathers’ involvement in their children’s care. All such initiatives are welcome.
Clare O'Hagan works in gender equality at the University of Limerick. Her book Complex Inequality and Working Mothers has recently been published by Cork University Press