Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I will be brief and will come back in during the second round of questioning, when I will ask questions of the congress. I want to finish with IBEC. I will turn to the issue of financial sustainability, which is, of course, something we must look at. Ms McElwee said in her opening statement that it would be financially unsustainable for a worker to take three days' sick leave at the end of December and three days' sick leave in the new calendar year. How is that different from a person taking three days' sick leave because he or she falls ill in September, that person having taken another three days' leave in July? I ask that mindful of Ms McElwee's previous comments about six days' absence being easier to plan for compared with a day here and a day there. I want to understand more about what makes the last week of December and the first week of January less financially sustainable, relative to taking sick pay at other times of the year. I apologise if the answer is obvious but I think it would be useful to clarify the point.