Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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Where did three days come from? Why is it three rather than two, four or five? How did the Minister of State come up with three? We are being asked to agree to three days because it is to increase to ten. We are being reassured that this will happen but the Bill does not provide such reassurance. Stitched into it is a wide-open loophole that means the current or another Government may well decide not to increase the number. The factors the Minister must have regard to in section 6(1) in deciding whether to increase the number include the state of the economy generally, the business environment, national competitiveness, the potential for any disproportionate or adverse effect on the economy generally, specific sectors of the economy, and employers and employees. The Minister must also have regard to the views of employer representative bodies. I would bet quite a large amount of money that the view of the employer representative bodies on increasing the number of sick-pay days will be that we should not be increasing it because the employers do not want to pay for it.

Even if we get to ten days, does the Minister of State not accept that we would still be far behind what is normal in many countries in Europe? In Austria, for example, workers are entitled to between ten and 16 weeks. It deals in weeks, not days, on 100% pay. In the Netherlands, people can get sick pay for up to two years. There are many other examples. Does the Minister of State accept that an entitlement of even ten days leaves us significantly lower than where we need to be?