Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Bambrick. The meat factory workers are an excellent example of how, unless we move to a limited period of self-certification, this sick pay scheme will not work. It will leave them out of pocket, as Dr. Bambrick has said. Clearly, that is not what any of us wants to achieve through this Bill.

I have another concern that I want to raise with both parties, which is how we write the legislation. As Dr. Bambrick has said, it is going to be written in with just three days leave and the idea is that regulations will increase that. As we all know, there is no guarantee that those regulations will come into force as planned. We all know that there is likely to be a pushback whenever the next cycle of session comes around. Would we not be far better to write the schedule of days and increases into the legislation to ensure that we end up with a worthwhile scheme? While that would not put us on a par with our colleagues in Europe it would at least bring us some way towards that.