Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

How will the Government track this? The Minister of State was responding to a question on businesses, but it is important that the scheme's operation be tracked on behalf of workers as well. As Deputy Bruton pointed out, a trip to the Labour Court can be a draconian process and take a long time. That is also true for workers. If they are not given their entitlement, they will have to go through a not dissimilar process.

Will the Minister of State outline more formally the intention as regards the review and how it will be done? It cannot only be done through the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, because the Family Business Network, FBN, is not represented on it. Clearly, the concerns being raised are being raised by smaller businesses. Concerns are also being raised with me by people working in smaller businesses, who tell me that we can introduce all the laws we like, but the people they work for will not follow them. The scheme has to be tracked formally. I appreciate and respect that the Government is constantly in touch with businesses and workers' representatives, but this needs to be a more formal process. If the employers go to the Labour Court – I do not believe they will – to say that they cannot pay for the scheme, this matter needs to be examined because it means that workers are not getting their entitlement to sick leave. We need a process that is more formal than "keeping an eye on it", one that is done through LEEF but also has all of those who are involved at the table.