This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
This section examines the recipients of Maternity Benefit and Paternity Benefit. These benefits are paid by the Department of Social Protection to employed and self-employed people who are on Maternity or Paternity Leave from work and also who are covered by social insurance (PRSI). As there were typically less than 30 claims for Adoptive Benefit in each year, this has been excluded from the analysis.
Each recipient is counted within the year in which their claim started, so a Maternity Benefit claim starting in 2019 and ending in 2020 is counted in 2019. Where the proportion of benefit recipients per 100 employees was calculated, the total number of employed persons aged 15 to 44 for both females and males, was used to represent an age specific rate. See Background Notes for further details.
The total number of claims beginning each year is quite stable over time, for both Maternity and Paternity Benefit. There were 39,268 Maternity Benefit claims in 2025, a small decrease from 39,529 in 2024. The number of Paternity Benefit claims were consistently lower than Maternity Benefit, and were 27,749 in 2025, a slight increase from 27,542 in 2024.
The proportion of employees who received Maternity Benefits has been declining since 2016, dropping from 6.9 per female 100 employees in 2016 to 6.1 in 2020. There was a notable increase up to a peak level of 7.1 in 2021 before dropping back to 5.5 in 2022. A similar downward trend is seen between 2022 and 2025 as was observed before the uptick in 2021, reaching 5.1 per 100 in 2025.
The general downward trend between 2019 and 2025 is related to a decline in birth rates, coupled with a rise in the numbers in employment over the same period. In 2021, the total persons employed dropped below the levels of the previous two years, while there was also a small increase in the birth rate in 2021, resulting in the peaks in Maternity and Paternity Benefit rates seen in that year. These were likely impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paternity Benefit rates were observed to be consistently lower than for Maternity Benefit and are relatively stable over time. The proportion of Paternity Benefit recipients was also at its highest level during 2021 reaching 3.9 per 100 male employees in the 15 to 44 age range, which dropped to 3.4 in 2025.
The general downward trend in Maternity Benefit recipient rates per 100 female employees since 2016 is related to two factors. The first is an increase in the size of the 15 to 44 age-group in the work force, shown in Figure 2.3 (source: CSO Labour Force Survey (LFS)).
The second is the reduction in the birth rate year on year over the same period, shown in Figure 2.4 (source: CSO Vital Statistics).
In 2025 the sector with the highest rates of Maternity Benefit recipients per 100 female employees were in Human Health & Social Work Activities (Q) at 6.5, Administrative and Support Service Activities (N) at 5.9, Education (P) at 5.7 and Finance & Real Estate (K, L) also at 5.7. The lowest rates were in Accommodation & Food Service Activities (I) at 2.1, Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (A) at 2.2 and Other NACE Activities (R-U) at 3.2.
In the same year the sector with the highest rates of Paternity Benefit recipients per male 100 employees were in Public Administration & Defence (O) at 5.1, Administrative and Support Service Activities also at 5.1, and Education (P), Human Health and Social Work Activities (Q), and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (M), all at 4.2. The lowest rates were in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (A) at 0.9, Accommodation & Food Service Activities (I) at 1.3, and Other NACE Activities (R-U) at 1.5.
In 2025, Maternity Benefit recipient rates per 100 female employees were similar within micro (0 to 9 employees), small (10 to 49 employees) and medium enterprises (50 to 249 employees) at between 3.6 and 4.0. The Maternity Benefit recipient rate was greatest in large enterprises, at 6.0.
Paternity Benefit recipient rates tended to increase relative to the size of the enterprise. Paternity Benefit rates were 2.3 per 100 male employees in micro enterprises, increasing to around 4.1 in large enterprises.
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