Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach and I am glad he has outlined for the first time the date on which he will publish a plan. He had all of the summer to do this but I welcome the fact that we will have it in two weeks' time. which we will have to wait for now.

The Taoiseach has put a challenge in asking me whether we are all following public health advice.

The reason I am raising the issue of sick pay and parental leave is because the acting Chief Medical Officer raised it himself last Thursday. Sick pay is an important issue when it comes to the potential spread of Covid, especially clusters. People who should not be going into work are going into work. It is as simple as that. They need to be taken on. We need to ensure there is a legislative provision and a statutory scheme to ensure workers do not have to choose between not getting paid and going in with symptoms of Covid. It is basic, simple and necessary. The acting Chief Medical Officer and the head of the HSE have called for it. The Taoiseach is asking us all to follow public health advice and we are, and the Taoiseach is always saying we should. The Taoiseach now needs to follow the advice on this specific issue.

Workers do not need to go into situations which put society in a vulnerable place. The way to deal with that is to ensure there is proper provision of sick pay across the board, especially in low-paid jobs. We all know that there are many large places of employment where clusters are being created and there is no sick pay. For instance, I was contacted by a representative of one of the groups in the meat industry when there was an outbreak in my county. I asked four questions relating to sick pay. Two weeks later, they still have not come back to me. I understand that one has to have a contract of over a year before one will even be considered for something like that, but many of the contracts are for less than a year. Workers will go into environments that they should not be going into, because they will not get paid otherwise. The Taoiseach needs to deal with this. This is a public health issue as well as a workers' rights issue.

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