11/07/2013

New Bill Proposes Maternity Leave To Be Shared

A new law has been proposed that would allow parents of new born babies to share the mothers maternity leave.

The Parental Leave Bill 2013 would allow mothers to transfer a portion of her maternity leave and its benefits to the father of the child, should she choose to go back to work.

Put forward by Fianna Fáil TD Mary White, she explained: "The greatest challenge facing the country is to create employment to offer hope and a potential living to the 300,000 unemployed and the young people in our schools and colleges. The only way we can create jobs is to encourage new enterprise.

"The biggest untapped source of enterprise is 50% of the population which are Irish women who face multiple barriers in becoming entrepreneurs and developing business."

The Parental Leave Bill 2013 is one of a series of initiatives contained in a new Fianna Fail Policy Paper promoting women in entrepreneurship.

(MH/CD)

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