Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Introduction of Statutory Sick Pay: Discussion

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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No, I will take seven minutes. I thank the Chairman and the members for facilitating me in joining remotely from the convention centre. The noise behind me can probably be heard. By way of an observation, I think we have all experienced the importance of sick benefit in recent months, In a global pandemic access to paid sick leave becomes an important instrument of public health. This has been brought into fairly stark relief for a lot of people.

What is Mr. McDonnell's view of the ICTU proposal, which seems very reasonable to me, that a clause similar to the minimum wage would be inserted into any sick pay scheme to ensure that employers that could not pay would be supported?