Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----women in pregnancy. As I said, it is my intention that the current position of the public service that we are progressive and model employers will continue in regard to that.

The fundamental question asked by the Deputy is in terms of what happens after two years when one loses a point. One has had three months on full pay, three months on half pay and the related pay floor determined for the balance. The idea, and that is the reason we are renaming that payment, is for it to be an encouragement back to work. I said in the opening remarks, and I know it can sound a bit odd, and this is the advice I have from the medical practitioners, that the notion that the objective is to get people back to work is supportive of recovery. The system is designed to get people back to work, not to categorise them as permanently ill. We want to provide the supporting mechanisms, rehabilitation and so on to get people back to work. The norm would be that after two years one might determine one is not returning to work because the illness is such that one is not capable of that work and one might want to find work elsewhere, in which case one might retire.

If one can return to work under a different set of circumstances, that would be facilitated also. That is part of the supporting regime we have put into the public service under human resource management. In terms of the specifics of time - I gave the answer to Deputy Fleming already - this is something we have not yet finalised with the Labour Court and it will be subject to the recommendation it will make on 16 December.

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