🌍 Culture & inspiration · During pregnancy

⚖️ Parental leave and rights: what applies to your family

Leave, benefits, parentage and parental responsibility are distinct legal questions.

Leave, pay and parenthood

1. What to prepare
Check current leave eligibility, notification rules, pay and job protection with the relevant authority and employer; record your agreed plan.
2. What to check
Confirm legal parentage and decision-making authority separately. Obtain family-law advice for unmarried, donor-conceived, adopted, surrogate-born or cross-border families.
3. In Ireland
Plan two consecutive weeks of paternity leave within the first 26 weeks after birth or adoption. Paternity Benefit has separate PRSI eligibility and is available to eligible same-sex couples; employer salary top-up is separate. Confirm notice and other parent’s-leave entitlements before applying.
4. In Ireland
Use the Civil Registration Service to register the birth. For unmarried parents, current rules require the mother to provide the father’s contact details unless an applicable exception applies; check the registrar’s process. Birth registration does not itself settle guardianship. Donor-conceived registration has a separate process.

A local detail, or your own experience with this guide? Write to the team