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THERE ARE FEW silver linings to be found in the most savage recession in modern times, but if we’re creative about it we might be able to wring something golden from the misery for Irish families.
One such way would be to take the opportunity to give fathers the chance to spend more time with their children by introducing a comprehensive reform of parental leave in Ireland.
Living in Sweden, I was lucky enough to spend a total of ten months at home with my two daughters, and I can safely say it was the best thing I’ve ever done. During that time I received around 90 per cent of my usual salary (80 per cent from the state, topped up by 10 per cent by my employer).
Under current circumstances there is no way that the Irish government or businesses could afford to mirror the generous Swedish system and give parents 480 days to split between them.
But what could be offered to fathers is the opportunity to take 60 or 90 days parental leave, to be replaced at work by someone on the live register. The obvious benefits to families are twofold – more men would experience what it is like to spend more time with their children, developing strong bonds with them and taking a more active role in the formative years of their children’s lives. For other families it would mean the chance for someone to get back into the workplace, even temporarily, to show what they can do and keep their skills sharp.
How payment is handled is a matter for government, employers and employees to work out, but there are a few obvious possibilities. The person on parental leave could have their salary reduced somewhat, with the difference added to the unemployment benefit paid to the person who would be replacing them.
I got my first real break in the Swedish job market this way
Any shortfall in income for the person on parental leave would be offset to some extent by a reduction in childcare costs during the period, thus rendering an effect that is close to neutral as possible on the household budget.
The effect for the unemployed person taking up the temporary role should not be underestimated either – in fact, I got my first real break in the Swedish job market when I did maternity cover for a girl having her first baby.
When given the chance, I worked as hard as I could to show what I could do, and when she returned I was kept on too – but if she had never had children I never would have had that chance. There would doubtless be a disruptive effect on businesses in the beginning as they sought to deal with a new system; there are key employees that are essential to the running of many organisations. But that too is a sign of weakness, and businesses need to learn to cope and become more resilient in case that person should become ill or find a new job.
Ultimately it is the benefit to the child that is most important., and the fact that they have a right to both parents. For the most part, children love their parents unconditionally, if not always equally. Such a reform of the system would represent the first step in redressing that imbalance.
This article first appeared on Philip’s blog, Ourmaninstockholm: Irishman’s reflections from Sweden.
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well , i hate to say it but how big would our collective blinkers be if it wasn’t for anon?
I love how easily people seem to blindly accept these faceless “organisations” as the saviours of “free speech”
How exactly does anonymous brand of censorship differ to SOPA censorship.
Ever Wonder who is really behind Anon & Wikileaks ?
Trust no one
an apt name
Don’t talk about what you don’t know.
In response to an “apparent” cyber attack on interpol they arrested 25 people they suspected… …of using computers? of having an IT degree? of saying something out of line on the journal.ie forums? Its all so paper thin it could be a plot line from CSI! And yet interpols exec direc thinks it was a successful crack down on cyber crime. What a nice little work of fiction we are being force fed.
“i fought the law and the law won!” Bobby Fuller
nothing but respect for anonymous, at the very least they have an excellent sense of humour. they will never be stopped
I thought these guys all used IP address blockers, etc. How good are they if they get caught so easily?
Who said it was easy? They are known to use zombie machines etc but the folks chasing them can be just as good, and obviously are.
Or how good are they that the managed to hack INTERPOL.
Comitting crime is easy. Evading capture is the hard part.
I’m not an IT head, but from all I’ve read hacking is as easy as picking a car lock…something I also have no skill or training in.
@Jason I doubt they hacked anyone, I’m assuming it was another DDoS attack like all the others.
These ‘cyber-attackers’ are just fools running LOIC pointed at an IP address. Hardly hackers.
Script Kids? Yeah, they make up most of Anonymous.
Which is a shame really, considering that they don’t quite understand what they are getting themselves into.
LulzSec & Anon and many other groups have dozens of guides on how to ghost yourself online. If the kids don’t want to read, who cares? I certainly don’t.
Ghosting isn’t entirely foolproof, though. Even though there are networking programs that completely exclude your mahcine from the WWW.
have your say