Parental leave legislation will be brought forward “sooner rather than later”, the Minister for Equality, Christian Santos, has said, as he acknowledged the reforms have been in development for years. At present, men have no statutory paternity leave, while women have 14 weeks of statutory maternity leave from an employment perspective but receive 18 weeks' worth of benefits. Mr Santos said the Government had three options under consideration, and was also introducing Jack’s Law which would legislate for two weeks paid leave for parental bereavement. She also called for statutory paid paternity leave and said any wider parental leave system should allow families to decide how leave was divided between parents. “It's important for the family to be in the equity to decide how they want to take the parental leave and for them to have that choice.”