Parents leave and benefit act 2019

• Act Number: 35
• Enactment Date: 24 October 2019

Number 35 of 2019
PARENT’S LEAVE AND BENEFIT ACT 2019
CONTENTS
PART 1
Preliminary and General
Section
1. Short title and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Voidance or modification of certain provisions in agreements
4. Expenses
PART 2
Parent’s Leave
5. Entitlement to parent’s leave
6. Notification to employer
7. Allocation of parent’s leave
8. Commencement of parent’s leave where relevant parent entitled to maternity leave
9. Commencement of parent’s leave where relevant parent entitled to adoptive leave under section 6(1) of Act of 1995
10. Commencement of parent’s leave for a relevant parent entitled to paternity leave
11. Commencement of parent’s leave (early confinement)
12. Commencement of parent’s leave (change in day of placement or date of confinement)
13. Postponement of parent’s leave by employer
14. Postponement of parent’s leave in event of hospitalisation of child
15. Entitlement to parent’s leave on death of child
16. Entitlement of employed surviving parent to leave on death of relevant parent
PART 3
Employment Protection
17. Interpretation (Part 3)
18. Preservation or suspension of rights while on parent’s leave
19. Protection of employees from penalisation
20. General right to return to work on expiration of parent’s leave
21. Postponement of return to work
22. Provisions applying where employee not permitted to return to work
PART 4
Resolution of Disputes
23. Disputes regarding entitlements under Act
24. Decision under section 41 or 44 of Act of 2015
25. Burden of proof
PART 5
Parent’s Benefit
26. Amendment of section 21 of Act of 2005
27. Amendment of section 39 of Act of 2005
28. Amendment of section 58 of Act of 2005
29. Parent’s benefit
30. Amendment of section 238B of Act of 2005
31. Amendment of section 241 of Act of 2005
32. Amendment of section 248 of Act of 2005
PART 6
Miscellaneous
33. Amendment of Schedule 3 to Redundancy Payments Act 1967
34. Amendment of section 6 of Act of 1977
35. Amendment of Act of 1994
36. Amendment of Act of 1995
37. Amendment of section 126 of Taxes Consolidation Act 1997
38. Amendment of Act of 2015
Acts Referred to
Adoption Act 2010 (No. 21)
Adoptive Leave Act 1995 (No. 2)
Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 (No. 9)
Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 (No. 24)
Civil Registration Act 2004 (No. 3)
Civil Service Regulation Act 1956 (No. 46)
Employment Equality Act 1998 (No. 21)
Industrial Relations Act 1946 (No. 26)
Interpretation Act 2005 (No. 23)
Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37)
Maternity Protection Act 1994 (No. 34)
Medical Practitioners Act 2007 (No. 25)
Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 (No. 4)
Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 (No. 11)
Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 (No. 29)
Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 (No. 45)
Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012 (No. 13)
Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (No. 21)
Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2014
Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (No. 26)
Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Act 2018 (No. 37)
Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (No. 39)
Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 (No. 10)
Workplace Relations Act 2015 (No. 16)
Number 35 of 2019
PARENT’S LEAVE AND BENEFIT ACT 2019
An Act to entitle certain employees who are relevant parents in relation to a child to employment leave for the purposes of enabling them to provide, or assist in the provision of, care to the child; to entitle certain employees who are surviving parents in relation to a child to employment leave on the death of a relevant parent; to provide for the payment of parent’s benefit to certain persons and, for that purpose, to amend the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 ; for those purposes to provide for the consequential amendment of certain other enactments; and to provide for related matters.
[24th October, 2019]
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
PART 1 Preliminary and General
		Short title and commencement
1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019.
	(2) This Act, other than Part 5 , shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.
	(3) Part 5 shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to a particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.
		Interpretation
2. (1) In this Act—
	“Act of 1977” means the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 ;
	“Act of 1994” means the Maternity Protection Act 1994 ;
	“Act of 1995” means the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 ;
	“Act of 2005” means the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 ;
	“Act of 2010” means the Adoption Act 2010 ;
	“Act of 2015” means the Workplace Relations Act 2015 ;
	“Act of 2016” means the Paternity Leave and Benefit Act 2016 ;
	“additional maternity leave” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1994;
	“adjudication officer” means a person appointed under section 40 of the Act of 2015;
	“adopting father” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1995;
	“adopting mother” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1995;
	“birth certificate” means a document issued under section 13 (4) of the Civil Registration Act 2004 ;
	“certificate of placement” has the meaning assigned to it by section 13 of the Act of 1995;
	“civil partner” shall be construed in accordance with section 3 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 ;
	“cohabitant” shall be construed in accordance with section 172 (1) of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 ;
	“contract of employment” means, subject to subsection (2) —
	(a) a contract of service or apprenticeship, or
	(b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency (within the meaning of the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012 ), and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for another person (whether or not that other person is a party to the contract),
	whether the contract is express or implied and, if express, whether it is oral or in writing;
	“date of confinement” shall be construed in accordance with section 51(1)(b) of the Act of 2005;
	“day of placement” means the day on which a child who is, or is to be, adopted is placed physically in the care of the relevant parent with a view to the adoption of the child or, in the case of an intercountry adoption effected outside the State where the child has not previously been placed in the care of the relevant adopting parent, the day on which the child has been so placed following the adoption;
	“declaration of eligibility and suitability” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2010;
	“employed adopting mother” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1995;
	“employee”, other than in section 25 , means a person of any age, who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment and includes a part-time employee and a fixed-term employee;
	“employer”, in relation to an employee—
	(a) means the person with whom the employee has entered into or for whom the employee works under (or, where the employment has ceased, entered into or worked under) a contract of employment, subject to the qualification that the person who under a contract of employment referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of contract of employment is liable to pay the remuneration of the individual concerned in respect of the work or service concerned shall be deemed to be the individual’s employer, and
	(b) includes, where appropriate, the successor of the employer or an associated employer of the employer;
	“expected week of confinement” has the meaning assigned to it by section 47(1)(a) of the Act of 2005;
	“fixed-term employee” has the same meaning as it has in the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 ;
	“intercountry adoption effected outside the State” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2010;
	“Labour Court” means the body established by section 10 of the Industrial Relations Act 1946 ;
	“maternity leave” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 1994;
	“Minister” means the Minister for Justice and Equality;
	“parent’s leave” has the meaning assigned to it by section 5 (1);
	“part-time employee” has the same meaning as it has in Part 2 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 ;
	“paternity leave” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2016;
	“registered medical practitioner” has the same meaning as it has in the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ;
	“relevant notification” has the meaning assigned to it by section 6 (1);
	“relevant parent”, in relation to a child, means a person who is—
	(a) in the case of a child who is, or is to be, adopted—
	(i) the adopting mother or sole male adopter of the child,
	(ii) the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, as the case may be, of the adopting mother or sole male adopter of the child, or
	(iii) where the child is, or is to be, adopted jointly by—
	(I) a married couple of the same sex,
	(II) a couple that are civil partners of each other, or
	(III) a cohabiting couple of the same sex,
	each of the couple...