Dr. Laura Bambrick:

There is quite a bit to unpack there. In rich economies, of which Ireland is one, having an occupational pension - auto enrolment was mentioned earlier – and having paid sick leave from one's employer is a normal part of the worker's compensation package. Ireland is the only OECD country that does not have an occupational pension with contributions from the employer. Up until last week we were one of a handful of rich countries where the employer is not legally required to pay sick pay. Should employers pay more social insurance? Absolutely. That is where the gap in the Government's revenue is coming. We are a low tax economy and the gap is mostly made up from social insurance contributions from employers and the self-employed. However, the normal practice in how sick pay works is that for a period, from anything between two weeks and two years, the employer is responsible for the full cost and after that it is social insurance, if the illness continues longer than the entitlement. It is not a case of saying if we increase social insurance then employers will not have out-of-pocket expenses for pensions and for sick pay. It is the way the rest of the developed, rich economies have worked.

They do not have massiveunemployment or underemployment. We have heard the same arguments against employer groups every time we have had modest, progressive improvements in the pay and conditions of workers. This was the case with the introduction of annual leave in the 1930s, equal pay for women in the 1970s, a national minimum wage in 2000 and every other modest improvement since. The sick pay scheme introduced last week, contained in the Bill that will be coming before the House, is very modest. It will be introduced over four years. At the maximum, it will involve the equivalent of a 2.5% increase at the top of the income earned before the cap over four years.