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

Subsection (2)(a) provides that the first ministerial order made under the Bill will not reduce the number of statutory sick leave days. Subsection 2(a)(i) provides that no ministerial order will reduce the number of statutory sick leave days below three. This means that once the Bill has been enacted and commenced, the number of statutory sick leave days can never go below three. Earlier, I explained where the three came from.

The effect of this amendment would be that the number of sick leave days provided for could never be reduced. This would mean that the Minister of the day would have no ability to respond to emergencies or changing circumstances, such as we have seen in the past couple of years. There are currently no plans to reduce the number of sick leave days provided for under the Bill. The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, and the Cabinet have been clear about the intention to move to ten days over the next number of years but it also makes sense to provide the Minister with the power to reduce the number of days, if the entitlement was deemed to be unsustainable. That is only fair and proper legislation to bring forward.