27.—(1) Section 2(2) of the Act of 1977 is amended by the insertion in paragraph (d) (inserted by the Adoptive Leave Act, 1995) after “the adopting parent” of:

“, or

(e) dismissal where the employer at the commencement of the employment informs the employee in writing that the employment will terminate on the return to work with that employer of an employee who is absent from work while on carer’s leave under the Carer’s Leave Act, 2001, and the dismissal of the employee duly occurs for the purpose of facilitating the return to work of the employee who has been on carer’s leave.”.

(2) Section 6 of the Act of 1977 is amended—

(a) by the substitution in subsection (2) for paragraph (dd) (inserted by the Parental Leave Act, 1998) of the following paragraph:

“(dd) the exercise or proposed exercise by the employee of the right to parental leave, force majeure leave under and in accordance with the Parental Leave Act, 1998, or carer’s leave under and in accordance with the Carer’s Leave Act, 2001,”,

and

(b) by the insertion, after subsection (2B) (inserted by the Parental Leave Act, 1998), of the following subsection:

“(2C) Sections 3 and 4 do not apply to a case falling within subsection (2)(dd) and, for the purpose of that paragraph, ‘employee’ includes a person who would otherwise be excluded from this Act by paragraph (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i) or (j) of section 2(1).”.