Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A reality of Irish life that people often forget is that we have a low-pay economy. A total of 23% of Irish workers are on low pay. We have the third highest proportion of low-paid workers in the OECD. People in Ireland are paid poorly. We do not have the same basic state provision of GP visit care as other European countries. The two elements that make the Irish context different are the number of people who are poorly paid and the poor provision of basic public services such as GP visits.

If people get sick it will cost them money. It will cost them to go to the doctor and to get whatever the doctor prescribes. It may make more sense to people to pretend they are not sick and to go to work. The Minister of State has to get into the mindset of poorly paid workers. A disproportionate number of them are women. They will have to make this choice. They may decide they cannot afford to take the dip in their wages as outlined in the Bill because of the costs they will have to incur in attending a GP and purchasing medicines. We have to have a sympathetic Act that protects workers who have to make this horrible choice so we do not have in the workforce people who feel they have to go to work when they are sick as otherwise they could not pay bills or feed their children. I ask the Minister of State to respond to this. We have a pandemic of low pay in the economy. This is a recognised fact. We also have the cost of being sick in Ireland, which is much higher than anywhere else in Europe.