Last September the government introduced paid paternity leave in Ireland, which allows fathers to take two weeks off work to help care for their newborns.
During their two weeks off, they will receive a payment of €235 per week.
The paternity benefit has the same qualifying PRSI conditionality as maternity benefit and is therefore only payable to employees and self-employed people who have the required number of PRSI contributions.
So far, over 10,640 fathers across the country have availed of the benefit, with the highest numbers of recipients living in Dublin (2,918), followed by Cork (1,359) and Galway (623).
Trailing in at the bottom of the list comes Leitrim, where only 77 new dads took advantage of the paid paternity leave.
Here’s the full breakdown of paternity benefit recipients, in each county, from last September to March:
Did YOUR family avail of the paternity leave scheme? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @Herfamilydotie
