Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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The Labour Party Private Members' Bill provided for ten days' sick leave, and rising to 30. I suppose my party's concern with the Bill is that it is not robust enough and that aspirations, as has been suggested, from the Minister of State, Deputy English, and from the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, are not hard wired into the Bill. We want to delete the same lines and to insert, "An employee shall be entitled to up to and including 10 statutory sick leave days in a year, or such additional number of statutory sick leave days (if any) up to 30, as may stand specified from time to time by order of the Minister ..." The Minister would have within his or her power the ability to increase that to 30 days over a period of time, but we have to start with ten. That is our strong view. If the Minister of State does not accept the amendment, I would be happy to discuss it or to try to convince him about a period of time, but we intend to push it again on Report Stage. However, I am interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say.