"There's a strong feeling that if men ask for paternity leave then it means they aren't committed to their job, " said Dr Maryanne Vallulius, director of the centre for gender and women's studies at Trinity College. She spoke to the Sunday Tribune after the launch of a conference on women's issues at Trinity.

"When a student interviewed the male workforce in two companies she found the men who did ask for family time were given a flat no.

If they asked for a day to go golfing then that was deemed acceptable."

Today's Irish business culture means that men who want to spend time with their children must go about it in more devious ways, such as taking sick leave and holiday time, Vallulius said.

The lack of paid paternity forces mothers re-entering the workforce to take even more time off, affecting their career progress and their ability to contribute meaningfully to a pension.

It also may explain the persistent gender pay gap in Ireland, where women earn 86 cent for every 1 earned by a male worker.

Work-life balance may have entered the lexicon but Ireland is well down the league table in making it easy for parents to share child-rearing. Most other EU member states require employers to allow at least some paternity leave.

Perhaps surprisingly, even less-developed countries including Algeria, Tunisia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and India mandate at least some paid paternal leave.

Irish law allows for 26 weeks maternity leave but no paid paternity leave. Civil servants are entitled to three days' paid leave on the birth or adoption of a child.

"Even if men got a month or six weeks' paternity leave it would be a start, " said Vallulius.

"We are not going to equalise the workplace before we equalise the home. Part of maternity leave is recovering physically from having a child so maybe it should be divided up between mothers and fathers but it shouldn't be transferred onto mothers."