Carer's Leave Eligibility
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
============================================================

Marian Harkin (IND), Sligo-Leitrim

While I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister for education, I hear very clearly what the Deputy is saying. As somebody who has championed carers' rights for many years, both at European Parliament level and at home, I fully hear the argument he is making. However, I have a response I will read to him and I will perhaps make one or two further comments.
As the Deputy said, the carer’s leave scheme is regulated by the Carer’s Leave Act 2001, as amended. The terms and conditions of the carer's leave scheme for teachers are outlined in chapter 6 of the Department of Education and Youth’s Circular 54/2019, Leave Schemes for Registered Teachers employed in Recognised Primary and Post-Primary Schools. Under the terms of the circular, a teacher may apply for carer’s leave when they have satisfactorily completed one year’s continuous service with their current employer. This requirement is waived where a teacher is compulsorily redeployed into a school or where a school is amalgamated, provided that they have worked at least one full year in their former school prior to redeployment or amalgamation.
Under section 24 of the Education Act 1998, as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012, the board of management is the employer of teachers, SNAs and other staff of the school. In the case of community national schools, the ETB is the employer and not the board of management. Therefore, when a teacher moves to another school, they are changing employer. This is further confirmed by the contract of employment, which states that the employer is the board of management of the school. To reiterate, the Department of Education and Youth is not the employer.
I hear what the Deputy says, but as the scheme is regulated by the Carer’s Leave Act 2001, as amended, it is not within the remit of the Department of Education and Youth to amend the eligibility criteria set out in the Act. It should be noted that the eligibility criteria set out in the Carer’s Leave Act 2001 applies to all employees of the State. As I said to the Deputy, I cannot go beyond the response that is in front of me, but he makes the case very clearly and compassionately. That is what he is asking for. If it is any help, I am certainly willing to make sure that his message gets to the Minister and is delivered very clearly as to the specific circumstances of the case. Perhaps he is right. Perhaps we need to change the law or there are some other solutions. I honestly cannot say but I can say this much: I certainly hear what he says and I remain open in any way I can to seeing whether I can help to provide a solution to this extremely difficult case.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16