Two separate things happen when you go on maternity leave, and almost every confusing conversation about it comes from treating them as one. Maternity leave is time away from your job, and it is an employment right: your employer grants it and the Maternity Protection Acts govern it. Maternity Benefit is a payment, and it is a social welfare claim: the Department of Social Protection decides it and your employer has nothing to do with whether you get it.
You can have one without the other. If you do not have enough PRSI contributions you still get the leave, unpaid. That is why the two have different deadlines, different forms and different people to chase, and why this guide is about the leave. The payment has its own guide.
The short version
- Basic maternity leave
- 26 weeks, and it does not matter how long you have worked there
- Additional maternity leave
- Up to 16 more weeks, unpaid, straight after the 26
- Latest start
- At least 2 weeks before the end of the week your baby is due
- Earliest start
- Not more than 16 weeks before the end of that same week
- Minimum after the birth
- 4 weeks
- Notice to your employer
- 4 weeks in writing, with a medical certificate confirming the pregnancy
- Maternity Benefit
- €299 a week for the 26 weeks, if you meet the PRSI conditions
- Apply to the department
- 6 weeks before you go, or 12 weeks if you are self-employed
How long is maternity leave in Ireland?
26 weeks of basic maternity leave, plus the option of 16 more weeks of additional maternity leave immediately afterwards. That is a maximum of 42 weeks away from work.
The 26 weeks are an entitlement from your first day in the job. There is no qualifying service period, and it applies to full-time, part-time and casual work alike. What varies is not the leave, it is whether anyone pays you during it.
The 26 weeks are covered by Maternity Benefit if your PRSI record qualifies you. The 16 additional weeks are not covered by anything: Maternity Benefit does not extend to them, and your employer does not have to pay you either. Some contracts top up maternity pay to full salary, but that is a term of your contract rather than a legal entitlement, so the answer is in your own contract and nowhere else.
The latest date you can start, and where the official pages disagree
This is the date that catches people out, because it is not the due date and it is not a date you choose freely. Your leave must begin at least 2 weeks before the end of the week your baby is due, and it cannot begin more than 16 weeks before the end of that same week.
Now the awkward part, and we would rather say it than let you find it on your own. The two official pages that explain this rule produce answers one day apart.
- Citizens Information says the end of the week is normally Saturday night, and its own worked examples land the latest start on a Sunday. A baby due Friday 20 June 2025 gives a latest start of Sunday 8 June 2025.
- gov.ie says that at a minimum you must begin your maternity leave on the Monday before the week your baby is due, and its worked example agrees with itself: a baby due Wednesday 8 October 2025 gives a latest start of Monday 29 September 2025.
Apply the Citizens Information reading to the gov.ie example and you get Sunday 28 September, a day earlier. Both pages are official, both were current when we checked them, and neither acknowledges the other. This is not a trick question you are failing: the guidance genuinely differs.
The safe move is to use the earlier of the two dates, the Sunday. Starting a day earlier than required costs you nothing and satisfies both readings. Starting a day later satisfies only one, and it is your employer and the department, not us, who apply the rule to your case. The calculator below gives you both.
Work out your dates
Enter the date your baby is due. This works out the latest date your leave can start under both official readings, the earliest date it can start, when the 26 paid weeks would end, when the 16 unpaid weeks would end, and the two deadlines for telling people.
Your leave dates are the first of about thirty steps that follow from this due date. Your date carries across, so you will not type it again. See my full plan →
This applies the published rules to the date you type, on your device. It is not a decision and it does not start anything. Your leave is agreed with your employer under the Maternity Protection Acts; Maternity Benefit is decided by the Department of Social Protection. Confirm your own dates on Citizens Information and gov.ie.
What you have to tell your employer, and when
You must give your employer at least 4 weeks' written notice that you intend to take maternity leave, together with a medical certificate confirming the pregnancy. Written means written: a conversation is not notice, and the notice requirement is one of the few places where not following the procedure can genuinely cost you the right.
If you want the 16 additional weeks you must give a separate 4 weeks' written notice for those as well. You are allowed to give both notices at the same time, and doing so is usually simpler than remembering to come back to it while you have a newborn.
Two situations change the notice rules and both are worth knowing before they happen. If your baby is born more than 4 weeks before your due date, you tell your employer in writing within 14 days of the birth and no other notice is needed. If your doctor certifies that you must start maternity leave earlier for medical reasons, your leave starts on the date the certificate says and no other notice is needed.
Coming back has its own notice: at least 4 weeks' written notice that you intend to return to work.
The two deadlines are not the same deadline. Your employer needs 4 weeks' notice. The Department of Social Protection wants your Maternity Benefit application 6 weeks before you go, or 12 weeks if you are self-employed. The department's deadline lands first, so working backwards from the employer's one is how the payment ends up late.
The 16 unpaid weeks, and what they actually cost
Additional maternity leave runs for up to 16 weeks and must start immediately after the 26 weeks end. It cannot be saved for later and it cannot be split.
Nobody pays you for it, but you are still treated as being in employment throughout. You keep building up annual leave, and you are entitled to any public holidays that fall during it.
The part people miss is PRSI. While you are getting Maternity Benefit you receive PRSI credits automatically. During the unpaid 16 weeks you do not: you have to ask your employer to complete an application for maternity leave credits after you return to work. It is a separate form, nobody sends it to you, and a gap in your PRSI record is the kind of thing that only shows up years later when it is counted for a pension. There is a guide on that form, because it is the single most commonly missed step in this whole process.
If your baby is born early
If your baby arrives before the date your maternity leave was due to start, you do not lose the weeks you had not taken yet. You get the full 26 weeks from the day your baby is born, plus extra leave for the number of weeks between the actual birth and the date you had planned to start.
Maternity Benefit is payable for that whole extended period. You need to tell the Maternity Benefit Section in writing, with confirmation from your doctor, your PPS number, the date your baby was born and your original due date.
If your baby goes into hospital, or you become seriously ill
Maternity leave is normally taken in one continuous block, and ordinary sick leave does not pause it. Two situations are exceptions, and you can use one or the other but not both.
If your baby is in hospital, you can ask to postpone your leave and go back to work meanwhile. You must already have taken at least 14 weeks of maternity leave, including 4 weeks after the birth, and your employer has the right to refuse. The postponement can last up to 6 months, and the remaining leave then resumes in one block starting within 7 days of your baby being discharged. You must also write to the department, which suspends your Maternity Benefit until your doctor confirms the discharge.
If you become seriously ill, a right introduced on 20 November 2024 lets you postpone maternity leave for between 5 and 52 weeks where you need ongoing treatment for a condition that is a serious risk to your life or health, mental health included. You give your employer 2 weeks' notice and a medical certificate.
Going back to your job
You are treated as being in employment for the whole of maternity leave and additional maternity leave, which is what gives you the right to return to the same job on the same contract. Where that is genuinely impracticable, your employer must offer suitable alternative work on terms that are not less favourable than before.
If pay or conditions improved while you were away, you get those improvements on your return. You do not come back to the terms you left on if the job moved on without you.
Maternity legislation also protects you from unfair dismissal, and a dispute about any of this goes to the Workplace Relations Commission. If you are thinking about not going back at all, resigning during maternity leave has its own rules worth reading first.
Who decides what
Your employer grants the leave, receives the notices and holds your job open. The Department of Social Protection decides Maternity Benefit and nothing else. Your doctor certifies the pregnancy and the expected date, and in the self-employed case certifies the leave itself. The Workplace Relations Commission hears complaints when the employment side goes wrong, and it has a deadline nobody mentions: within 6 months of the dispute taking place, extendable by a further 6 months only where there was reasonable cause for the delay. Revenue taxes Maternity Benefit, which is why the payment can change the tax you owe even though it is not taxed at source.
We decide none of it. This guide sets out what the official pages say so you know which door to knock on.
See your leave dates alongside everything else
parentready turns the official rules into a personalised, ordered checklist for your situation. Free, private, and on your device.
Official sources
- Citizens Information: Maternity leave (the 26 and 16 weeks, the 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after, the notice rules, premature birth, hospitalisation, serious illness, and the right to return)
- gov.ie: Maternity Benefit (the weekly rate, the PRSI conditions, the MB2 and MB3 certificates, the 6 and 12 week application deadlines, and the earliest and latest start dates)
- Irish Statute Book, revised: Maternity Protection Act 1994, as amended (the governing legislation, including the notification and additional leave provisions)
- Workplace Relations Commission: Maternity leave (independent confirmation of the 26 and 16 weeks and the 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after, and the body that hears complaints)
Facts checked against the official pages on 1 September 2026, and the Workplace Relations Commission time limit on 14 September 2026. This is general information, not legal, medical or financial advice, and it does not decide your leave, your entitlement or your payment. Your leave is a matter between you and your employer under the Maternity Protection Acts; Maternity Benefit is decided by the Department of Social Protection. Rates and rules are set by government and can change; always confirm on the official pages linked above.