Legislation to extend the period of unpaid parental leave is due to pass through the Dáil later today.
The Parental Leave Bill will come into force on September 1 this year.
It will allow parents of children under 12 to take six months' unpaid leave from their jobs.
The current available period of permitted leave is 18 weeks, the minimum amount under EU law.
Initially, an extra four weeks will be added from September, with this extending to the full 26 weeks a year later.
The Bill also extends the age of a qualifying child from eight years to 12.
The legislation was first proposed by the Social Democrats in 2017.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed last night that the financial resolution to permit the Bill to go ahead has been approved.
Signed this money message today for increased parental leave, through a bill introduced by @RoisinShortall. It’ll allow working parents take extra unpaid leave to spend time with their children up to age 12. We’re also increasing paid parental benefit for the first year. pic.twitter.com/8uYKbj36dV
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) May 13, 2019