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

I have the received the report and while I have not had a proper chance to read it from cover to cover yet, I will. I am keen to get the legislation into the House in the next couple of weeks.

Introducing statutory sick leave is part of the pandemic dividend, the more inclusive economy and fairer society we want to build. It is one of five new workers' rights being established this year, the other four being a new public holiday; the right to request remote working and the right to flexible working; new rights around redundancy for people laid off during the pandemic; and better protection of workplace tips and gratuities.

Ireland is an outlier among developed OECD countries in not providing for any statutory paid sick leave. I do not think it is right that people feel forced to go to work when they are sick and it is certainly not good for public health. The Bill is intended to provide a level of protection for low-paid employees who may have no company sick pay schemes and, therefore, cannot afford to miss work. As a starting point, this scheme will cover the three waiting days before eligibility for illness benefit from the State kicks in. This is a progressive Bill and will ensure all employees are better off and will have financial protection from day one of a medically certified absence.

Taking account of the current economic climate, the initial period covered by employers will be modest but will increase incrementally. We must be mindful of imposing excessive costs on employers, particularly small businesses, many of whom have had a very difficult two years with Covid and Brexit. That is why we are taking an incremental approach to introducing the scheme.

The legislation will provide for sick pay of 70% of gross salary up to a cap of €110 for three working days in a calendar year, and will eventually go to ten days. I believe it would be unreasonable to introduce a legal obligation for employers to pay for sick leave without the need for a worker to produce evidence for this in the form of a medical certificate. That would not be sick leave; it would be a different form of leave. The requirement for a medical certificate for paid sick leave is a fair and necessary provision. It is also not an unusual requirement. Employees are currently required to provide medical certificates to access the State illness benefit scheme and it is a requirement in many sectoral and company level sick pay arrangements.

I thank the committee for its work on the pre-legislative scrutiny report. We will consider it carefully and I will bring the Bill to the Cabinet as soon as possible.

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