Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste mentioned people who cannot afford to stay off work. It is important that people who are sick have the comfort of knowing they can stay off work, and we all agree on that. However, there are people who cannot afford to go to the doctor. What I am trying to put into the Tánaiste's head and what I am asking him to consider is the case of a worker who cannot access this. They might have €55 or €60 in their pocket but that could be the money they have to do them for the rest of the week. In a situation where a worker does not have the necessary funds to be able to go to the GP, that worker is left in a quandary, as I am sure the Tánaiste can see. They cannot afford to take the day off work and they cannot afford to go to the doctor where the certification is required.

I fully understand the need to phase it in and we will work with the Tánaiste to get this legislation through. However, we cannot have a situation where workers have access to a statutory sick pay scheme that they cannot access because they do not have access to the funds to go to a GP.

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