🇮🇪 Ireland
New dad: from the first plans to the first years
Appointments, feeding, nights and paperwork. Take it one stage at a time, together.
Your timeline
Birth to two weeks
Share feeding, changing, soothing and meals. Confirm follow-up appointments and the birth-registration deadline. Never shake a baby; if overwhelmed, put them safely down and take a short break.
Leave and family paperwork
Leave, benefits, parentage and parental responsibility are distinct legal questions.
What to prepare
Check current leave eligibility, notification rules, pay and job protection with the relevant authority and employer; record your agreed plan.
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.
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.
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.
Health and emergency contacts
This site does not replace medical advice. For a life-threatening emergency, call 112 or 999.