Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As is always the case in these scenarios, you have to look at it from the point of view of the parent and of the employer. Particularly where the parent is a lone parent, their having to take time off work could be very injurious. There would be lost income and they do not have somebody else co-parenting with them to help out. Therefore, all the income in the household is lost, not just one of the two incomes. From the point of view the employer, if somebody takes time off to look after a child who is sick or self isolating, the employer has to pay a replacement, in many cases. The employer has to pay that person as well. That could be a real difficulty for the employer or the business. I imagine that this problem arose before Covid-19. For as long as I can remember, parents had to take time off work to look after sick kids. There is a new aspect to that now, which is that kids are told to self isolate. It is difficult to work out.

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