Adoptive Leave
At present, twenty four consecutive weeks of paid Adoptive Leave is allowed to adopting mothers and to sole male adopters.
Adoptive Leave may be followed by up to sixteen consecutive weeks of unpaid additional adoptive leave.
Officers appointed on or after 6 April 1995 when absent on adoptive leave, are required to make the necessary claims for adoptive benefit to the Department of Social and Family Affairs within the required time limits and to comply with whatever requirements are laid down by that Department as a condition of claiming benefit.
Full details of the Department of Social and Family Affairs requirements and conditions for making claims are made available at the time of appointment (Circular 6/95 Revised social insurance status and conditions of service of certain civil servants).
Please consult the Personnel Section regarding time off to attend certain pre-adoption classes and meetings, or possible flexitime adjustments in the context of arranging foreign adoptions.
The period of paid adoptive leave counts as service in all respects. The period of unpaid additional adoptive leave counts as service for promotion, increment, and public holidays but not for remuneration and superannuation purposes.
Circular 02 of 1997 Adoptive Leave
Circular 30 of 2006 Adoptive Leave Act
Annual Leave
The Organisation of Working Time Act gives all full time employees a statutory minimum of four working weeks Annual Leave.
Annual Leave allowances in the civil service are covered by Circular 27 of 2003 Annual Leave (amended by Circular 06 of 2011 Annual Leave and Privilege Days which followed the abolition of Privilege Days and increased Annual Leave allowances by two days) which lays out the leave allowances for grades in the civil service.
Circular 27 of 2003 Annual Leave
These allowances also include leave in excess of the statutory minimum.
Letters to Personnel Officers on the increase in Annual Leave allowances for the grades of EO and CO and grades analagous to EO and CO.
Annual Leave Increases for EO and CO
Carer’s Leave
Carer’s Leave, which is a statutory entitlement (Carer’s Leave Act 2001), allows staff to take temporary unpaid leave to enable them personally to provide full-time care and attention for a person who is in need of such care.
The maximum entitlement to Carer’s Leave is two years or one hundred and four weeks.
Carer’s Leave may be taken as one continuous period of one hundred and four weeks or, within certain limits, as one or more periods amounting to not more than one hundred and four weeks.
A civil servant who wishes to avail of Carer’s Leave must have completed at least twelve months continuous service in the Civil Service (there is no hours threshold).
A civil servant on Carer’s Leave will be treated as if he or she had not been absent from his or her employment so that all his or her employment rights, except the right to remuneration, annual leave, public holidays in excess of the initial period of thirteen weeks of Carer’s Leave, and superannuation benefits, will be unaffected during the leave.
Circular 39 of 2005 Carers Leave
Force Majeure Leave
Force Majeure Leave (i.e. paid ‘emergency’ leave)
Circular 05/2010 Force Majeure and other Urgent Family Reasons Leave, Circular 22/98 Parental Leave explains the entitlement to force majeureleave, which like Parental Leave, is provided for in the Parental Leave Act 1998 and the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006.
Force Majeure leave means that all employees have a limited right to paid time off (three days in any period of twelve consecutive months and five days in any period of thirty six consecutive months) for urgent family reasons owing to accident/illness of an immediate relative, or of a person “in a relationship of domestic dependency” with the employee.
In order to be able to avail of force majeure leave, the event giving rise to it must be urgent, and the employee’s immediatepresence with the ill or injured person must be indispensable.
Maternity Leave
At present, maternity leave consists of twenty six weeks paid leave with an option to avail of sixteen weeks unpaid additional maternity leave.
In general, a minimum of two weeks maternity leave must be taken before the date of confinement and at least four weeks after the date of confinement.
Officers appointed on or after 6 April 1995 when absent on paid maternity leave, are required to make the necessary claims for maternity benefit to the Department of Social and Family Affairs within the required time limits and to comply with whatever requirements are laid down by that Department as a condition of claiming benefit.
Full details of the Department of Social and Family Affairs requirements and conditions for making claims are made available at the time of appointment (Circular 6/95 Revised social insurance status and conditions of service of certain civil servants).
The period of paid maternity leave counts as service in all respects. The period of unpaid additional maternity leave counts as service for promotion, increment, and public holidays but not for remuneration and superannuation purposes.
Please refer to Paragraph 4 of Circular 35 of 1995 Maternity Leave “Pregnant staff are entitled to such paid time off from duty as is necessary for attendance at ante-natal and post-natal clinics“.
Circular 3 of 1995 Maternity Leave
A pregnant employee is entitled to paid time off from duty as is necessary for attendance at ante-natal classes. Expectant fathers shall be entitled once only to time off from work, without loss of pay, for the purpose of attending the last two ante-natal classes attended by the expectant mother before the birth of the child.
Evidence of appointment or attendance at the clinic will be required.
Breastfeeding mothers are entitled to paid breaks from work (one hour per day), or reduced daily working time (one hour per day) to facilitate breastfeeding or lactation (Circular 31/06 Implementation of the Regulations of the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004).
At present, breastfeeding or lactation breaks may continue until the child is two years of age.
Circular 35 of 1995 Maternity Leave
Parental Leave
Circular 20/2008 – Parental leave in the Civil Service provides a summary of the main provisions of the Parental Leave Acts and is the authoritative guidance on all aspects of the parental leave scheme as it applies in the Civil Service.
Parental Leave is a statutory entitlement, under Parental Leave Act 1998 and the Parental Leave (Amendment) Act 2006, which allows the parent of a child, born or adopted, to take unpaid leave for 18 working weeks for the purpose of caring for his/her child.
Parental Leave must be taken before the child is thirteen years of age (sixteen in the case of a child with a disability or a long term illness).
Those who are in loco parentis may also be entitled to avail of Parental Leave. Parental Leave is available to Civil Service staff who have one year’s continuous service, but it will also be allowed, on a reduced basis, to staff who have more than three months but less than twelve months continuous service.
Parental Leave may be taken as one continuous period of 18 weeks, or as shorter periods together amounting to 18 weeks.
This entitlement is reduced pro-rata in cases where the parent is availing of worksharing arrangements. 14 weeks of the 18 weeks Parental Leave entitlements may be transferred from one parent to another if both parents are employed by the same employer (the Civil Service is deemed a single employer for this purpose), subject to the employer’s agreement.
An officer who falls ill while on parental leave and as a result is unable to care for the child, e.g. hospitalisation, may suspend the parental leave for the duration of the illness following which period the parental leave recommences.
While the Parental Leave Act does not confer an entitlement to remuneration and superannuation benefits, an officer on parental leave is deemed to be in employment.
The absence will therefore count as service for promotion, increment and annual leave.
Circular 13/2010 amended the upper limit of the age of the child in respect of whom employees may take parental leave from 8 to 13 years on an administrative basis.
Letter to HR Managers dated 20 March 2013 describes changes in parental leave in line with SI 81 of 2013 which increases parental leave from 14 working weeks to 18 working weeks.
Four weeks are non-transferable between qualifying parents where both parents are employed in the Civil Service.
A Letter to Personnel Officers dated 26 July 2019 increases the amount of parental leave from
- 18 weeks to 22 weeks from 1 September, 2019 and from
- 22 to 26 weeks from 1 September, 2020.
Parental Leave Amendment Act 2006
Circular 18/2016 Paternity Leave in the Civil Service allows one single period of two weeks paid leave to civil servants, who are relevant parents, to provide or assist in the provision of care to a child or to provide support to the relevant adopting parent or mother of the child.
This Circular revokes Circular 32 of 1999 – Paternity Leave
Sick Leave
The Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Act 2013 was enacted in December 2013 and provides the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with the power to make regulations that will set out specific details of the new Sick Leave Scheme for the Public Service.
The details of this Scheme are set out in Public Service Management (Sick Leave) Regulations (SI 124 of 2014) and Public Service Management (Sick Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 SI 384 of 2015. A Guide to the Regulations is available and must be read in conjunction with the Regulations.
Public Service Sick Leave Statistics
The Public Service Sick Leave Statistics for 2018 show the rate of sick leave is 4.2% and on average 9.2 working days were taken per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) in the Public Service.
Public Sick Leave Statistics 2018
The overall cost of sick leave in the Public Service is estimated at €381.5million for 2018 which represents a cumulative saving of €156.4 million since 2013.
Detailed Statistics and Trends for 2018 show sick leave rates since the introduction of the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme which came into effect in the majority of sectors on 31st March 2014 and the Education Sector on 1st September 2014.
Please see also Public Service Sick Leave Statistics for 2017 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
Rates of sick leave for the Civil Service broken down by organisation are also available for 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform carried out a comprehensive review of the operation of the Scheme and this was completed in July 2016 and made 17 recommendations for change.
Consultations in relation to the recommendations for change between DPER and the Public Sector Unions and Associations took place from September 2016 to Jun 2018.
Recommendations of the Review, other than those that went before the Labour Court in November 2018, have been agreed to by the Public Sector Unions and Associations and some have already been implemented.
The matters before the Court were elements of the Sick Leave Scheme that were not standardised in 2014 when the Scheme was first introduced.
The outcome on the standardisation of these elements of the Scheme was the subject of a Labour Court ruling in November 2018 and these are in the process of being implemented across the Public Service.
Sick Leave in the Civil Service
The administrative arrangements for the Civil Service are set out in Circular 05 of 2018 and must be read in conjunction with the Regulations.
Paid Sick Leave
The new scheme provides for the payment of the following to staff during periods of absence from work due to illness or injury:
- A maximum of 92 days on full pay in a rolling one year period
- Followed by a maximum of 91 days on half pay in a rolling one year period
- Subject to a maximum of 183 days paid sick leave in a rolling four year period
Temporary Rehabilitation Remuneration
Temporary Rehabilitation Remuneration (TRR) was formerly referred to as Pension Rate of Pay (PRP) and will be calculated and awarded in the same way.
It will only be payable when there is a realistic prospect of an individual returning to work. The key change in the move from PRP to TRP is that the maximum period for which TRR can be paid is 547 days under ordinary sick leave arrangements.
Critical Illness Provisions (CIP)
In recognition of the fact that, sometimes, a longer period of sick leave can be required to address a critical illness or serious physical injury, there is provision for the following to apply in exceptional circumstances:
- A maximum of 183 days on full pay in a rolling one year period
- Followed by a maximum of 182 days on half pay in a rolling one year period
- Subject to a maximum of 365 days paid sick leave in a rolling four year period
There will be access to TRR under the CIP as follows:
- 365 days on TRR
- a further period not exceeding 730 days may be granted in cases where the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has confirmed that there is a reasonable prospect of return to work. Such cases must be directly linked to the critical illness and will normally follow a continuous period of long term sick leave. This is subject to six monthly reviews.
Granting of Critical Illness Provisions
The decision to grant extended paid sick leave for a critical illness, injury or condition is made by the HR Manager in the Department/Office and is based on medical advice from the CMO and all the circumstances of the case.
The Critical Illness Protocol (CIP) sets out the criteria which must be met in order to be granted access to critical illness provisions.
The CIP has been revised with effect from the 31st of March 2018. There have been changes made to the medical criteria as set out below.
The Occupational Physician, (the Chief Medical Officer), will advise whether, in their opinion, the following criteria are met:
- The employee is medically unfit to return to his or her current duties or (where practicable) modified duties in the same pay grade
- The nature of this medical condition has at least one of the following characteristics:
- Acute life threatening physical illness
- Chronic progressive illness, with well-established potential to reduce life expectancy
- Major physical trauma ordinarily requiring corrective acute operative surgical treatment
- In-patient or day hospital care of ten consecutive days or greater.
Civil servants who wish to apply for CIP must fill out a CIP Application Form and submit it to their HR Manager.
Pregnancy Related Sick Leave Flyer
Special and Other Leave
Special Leave is granted in certain circumstances, subject to the work requirements of the Civil Service:
Special leave on marriage:
Circular 6 of 2016 – Special Leave with pay on Marriage Up to five days paid leave on marriage provided the total of marriage leave and annual leave does not exceed twenty seven days (General Council Report 1534 refers, Appendix 1 of Circular).
FAQs on the subject of Marriage Leave
Special leave at time of bereavement: (Circular 01/2017):
Twenty working days paid leave in the case of the death of a spouse (including a cohabiting partner), child (including adopted children and children being cared for on the basis of ‘in loco parentis’) or any person in a relationship of domestic dependency;
Five working days paid leave in the case of the death of another immediate relative [for the purposes of bereavement leave “immediate relative” means father, step-father, mother, step-mother, brother, step-brother, half-brother, brother-in-law, sister, step-sister, half-sister, sister-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandfather, grandmother or grandchild of an officer];
One working day in the case of the death of an uncle, aunt, niece or nephew.
Study and examination leave:
Ten days paid study leave in respect of the final year only of a third level primary or masters degree; five days paid study leave for the other years of a third level course; paid leave for time necessarily spent at examinations
Leave for civic purposes:
A number of days paid leave per year are allowed for instruction in Civil Defence , training with the Reserve Defence Force, training or call out with Voluntary Search and Rescue Organisations.
This covers (1). Leave for attendance at training courses with Voluntary Search and Rescue Organisations and (2). Leave for call out to an emergency search and rescue), acting as a staff representative
Facilities for non full-time representatives of staff associations and unions is covered in Circular 14 of 1980.
Sporting Events:
representing Ireland in certain major international sporting events is covered in Letter – Special Leave for Sporting Purposes.
Letter Special Leave for Sporting Purposes
Leave for domestic reasons:
Up to six months unpaid leave to deal with difficulties arising from the death or serious illness of an immediate relative and up to two months unpaid leave to deal with other urgent domestic affairs.
Leave to work with the EU or an international organisation:
Up to ten years unpaid leave to serve with the EU and up to five years unpaid leave to serve with an international organisation of which Ireland is a member.
Leave for charitable and humanitarian work:
Up to one year unpaid leave for charitable or cultural work in Ireland, and up to five years for humanitarian emergencies and development work overseas.
Jury Service/Court Appearance:
It should be noted that if an officer is not selected for jury service, she/he is not entitled to time off with full pay.
Accordingly, an officer should return to work in the afternoon, s/he is not covered by the terms of Circular 11 of 1977 Jury Service.
Arrangements where civil servants are required to attend in Court as witnesses are covered in Circular 31 of 2007 – Attendance of Civil Servants in Court as Witnesses
Special leave without pay may be given in certain other circumstances at the discretion of the Head of Department/Office; however it should be noted that unpaid leave will not reckon for superannuation purposes.
An officer considering applying for special leave should consult the Personnel Section.
