Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry, Chairman, I thought I covered it already.

In response to Deputy Flaherty, I recognise the pressure businesses are under. I recognise the mechanisms. If one uses the clause that is there under exemption, there are the consequences. To respond to Deputy Paul Murphy, it is not to say that businesses cannot have their profits reduced. It is that the business is not sustainable if it pays this out, and would not survive and it would put jobs at risk. Nobody here wants to risk the jobs. We all want to increase the number of jobs. It is great that this country has had a jobs-led recovery. Of course, we want good terms and conditions and to constantly improve that as much as we possibly can, but not to put jobs at risk.

This is a statutory pay scheme. It is about rights across all sectors. Business supports and supports to different businesses are dealt with elsewhere, but we will try to capture what Deputy Flaherty and others are asking on Report Stage in order to recognise that too. However, it is built into the reform mechanism.

In terms of supports, such as job supports, we do not deal with them in statutory rights legislation. However, I accept what Deputy Flaherty is asking me and I will try to deal with it more on Report Stage. It is ongoing work we do through the local enterprise offices, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and many other organisations supporting jobs. Even with Pathways to Work through the Department of Social Protection, we encourage and work with employers to give people a chance to work and to retrain, etc., across many Departments. They are job supports in many other ways. I will track that.

As I said, we recognise that some businesses will feel under pressure to absorb these costs over the next couple of years and that is why we are trying to get the balance right here. That is why the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, has led on this and that over a four-year period, not straightaway, we will increase it up to ten days.