Parental leave entitles parents to take unpaid leave from work to spend time looking after their children. You can take up to 26 weeks’ parental leave for each eligible child before their 12th birthday. 

Parental leave entitles parents to take unpaid leave from work to spend time looking after their children. You can take up to 26 weeks’ parental leave for each eligible child before their 12th birthday. In general, you must have been working for your employer for at least a year to get the full amount of parental leave. You must give your employer at least 6 weeks’ notice before taking parental leave.

Age of child

Age limits for children

You can take parental leave for your child up until their 12th birthday.
If you adopted your child between the age of 10 and 12, you can take parental leave for them for up to 2 years after the date of the adoption order.


Amount of parental leave

Under the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2019 the amount of parental leave that you can take has increased from 18 weeks to 26 weeks. This was phased over a 2-year period. Since 1 September 2020, you can take up to 26 weeks parental leave.

If you have already taken some, or all of your previous entitlement of parental leave per child, you can still take the extra parental leave, if your child is still eligible.

If you have more than one child, parental leave is limited to 26 weeks in a 12-month period. This can be longer if your employer agrees.

Taking Parental Leave.

Since 1 September 2020, you are entitled to 26 weeks parental leave. You can take this leave as:

• One continuous period of leave or;
• 2 separate blocks of a minimum of 6 weeks each;
• If your employer consents, broken into working days and/or hours.

There must be a gap of at least 10 weeks between the 2 periods of parental leave per child.

Illness of parent

If the parent becomes ill while on parental leave and is unable to care for the child the leave can be suspended for the duration of the illness. In order to suspend the parental leave the employee must give written notice and relevant evidence of the illness to the employer as soon as is reasonably practicable. The parental leave resumes after the illness. During the illness the parent is treated as an employee who is sick.

Employment rights while on parental leave

You are not entitled to pay from your employer while you are on parental leave nor are you entitled to any social welfare payment equivalent to Maternity Benefit or Adoptive Benefit.

Taking parental leave does not affect other employment rights you have.

Annual leave and public holidays

While on parental leave, you must be regarded for employment rights purposes as still working. This means that you can build up annual leave while on parental leave. If your annual holidays fall due during parental leave, they may be taken at a later time. A public holiday that falls while you are on parental leave and on a day when you would normally be working is added to your period of leave.

The legislation governing parental leave is the Parental Leave Acts 1998 -2019.

Our Blog Link: http://www.shanahan.ie/news/114-paternity-leave-for-dad-s-army-in-2016

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