Mr. Neil McDonnell:

I believe ICTU knows the financial implications this presents, especially for small businesses. We are well aware that for some businesses, the cost of labour is a decimal percentage of the cost of sales. Let us be honest; there are some highly profitable mostly multinational companies working in this country for which this does not present an issue.

On the other hand, there are small businesses in the service sector where the cost of labour can be north of 50%. The National Competitiveness Council puts it at 86% in some businesses. I refer to what one is faced with when someone who is entitled to statutory sick pay is in a small business. I acknowledge we are having a discussion in the abstract about what percentage of daily or weekly pay that is. In a small business, if one takes, for example, somewhere where the service has to be delivered by a person physically being there, such as a hairdresser, a barber, security function, coffee shop and what not, one is not merely looking at the statutory sick pay but also the replacement cost of labour. In businesses which are marginally profitable, that is a significant cost, which potentially makes the delivery of that service on that day loss-making.

We are not suggesting there are businesses that could not pay an element of statutory sick pay. The worst-case scenario would be an inability-to-pay clause but the reality of some of those European countries that have been quoted earlier is that they have significant rates of employee social insurance - up to 20% in the case of France - so these things have to be paid for somewhere.