Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Bríd Smith said it as well as one can when she said she does not believe a word of the Government's amendment. It is attempting to kick this issue down the road and is hoping that Covid, and the struggle for workers' rights which is connected to the struggle against Covid, disappears in some way. We simply cannot tolerate an ongoing situation where meat plant workers, nursing home workers and care workers of all sorts with Covid symptoms have to show up to work despite being sick because they cannot afford to lose a day's pay. It is simply not acceptable that workers in Ireland have no guaranteed right to sick pay whatsoever while almost all other European countries ensure this is a right. In Germany, workers get six weeks' sick pay but in many other countries they have even better rights. In Norway they get a full year. In the Netherlands, bosses are required to cover sick leave for up to two years with supports for small businesses that cannot afford to do so. We can and should do the same here. The meat plant workers epitomise the problem. Despite the pandemic, the beef barons are still denying sick pay to 6,000 meat factory workers and the Government is letting them away with it. We need to end that situation now.

I will speak briefly about the proposals for parental leave. Working parents have been made shoulder the burden of the fight against Covid with very little support from the Government. When the schools were closed, parents, and women in particular, were the ones who had to pick up the slack, working full-time and double-jobbing with no entitlement to paid parental leave. With Covid outbreaks now in some schools and some children having to stay home again, we need to support parents by extending paid parental leave. If a child cannot go to school because he or she has symptoms or the class or school is closed, parents should be entitled to leave from work to stay home if needed. That is the very least they should be able to expect.

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