Ms Maeve McElwee:

Our intention is not to try to delay the legislation unnecessarily. Looking at the Bill as it is currently drafted and given the lack of clarity we have, we feel a lot of information is missing. As I have already outlined, there are a number of clauses, including anti-abuse clauses and companies' ability to be able to manage this system appropriately, as one would expect any organisation to manage an absence policy, in which there is a lack of clarity. The definitions within sections 8 and 9 are very unclear. We are expecting that as the Bill moves forward, we will see more clarity around its drafting. We hope that as a result of our interventions at the committee today, some of the concerns we have around the lack of clarity in the legislation will be reflected as the Bill progresses and it will be amended and updated to address some of those concerns.

I have listened to the points Dr. Bambrick has raised this morning about, for example, the definitions within the initial sections. We have a different sense and a different feeling around the whole issue of who is going to be captured by it. We have had some discussion around bogus self-employment and who would be captured. The real concern for employers is that we do not have a definition of "worker" in Irish legislation. One is either an employee or is not an employee. We have plenty of case law and legislation that allows us to determine who is an employee and who is not. We have adequate and ample mechanisms, in our view, for how that gets done. The challenge with legislation like this is that if we have people who are not in a traditional employment contract, that opens up a whole question as to how an employer would understand to whom they have responsibilities. How would the employer apply existing sick pay schemes to somebody who is not on an existing contract of employment, as we understand it? How are we going to deal with people who have multiple part-time roles, that is, people who are not just in the employment of one employer? What happens when a worker's illness might arise from an injury or occupational illness suffered while working for one employer? How are we going to manage such a situation, even for payroll or reporting purposes, and determine who is paying that sick leave and how it will be structured? We have no clarity at all around how part-time sick pay is going to be managed, accrued or calculated. To answer the Senator's question, there is still a major absence of information that will require remedy before we think this Bill is ready to be enacted. However, we do not intent to delay it. We will continue to bring forward all of the concerns, as we have been doing, to try to make sure we have the best and most appropriate legislation when it passes.