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

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 6, line 22, to delete “The order first’’ and substitute “An order”.

This amendment would mean the number of sick days can only be increased by future Ministers from three upwards, as opposed to the prospect of future Governments actually being able to reduce the number of days down to a floor of three. If we are going to say to workers we are introducing it at three days, which we think is very minimal, and it will go up to ten and then, it is hoped, up from there, the idea that included in the legislation is the possibility of future Ministers actually reducing the number of sick leave days undermines the expectation. There is not a built-in mechanism here for the number of days to increase, which we think there should be, but at the very least, not including a provision for future Ministers to reduce the number of sick pay days is a very reasonable amendment. We should not be going backwards and we should not legislate for future Ministers to go backwards. The Tánaiste will be able to respond with all sorts of nightmare scenarios whereby we have no choice but to go backwards. That is okay, but in that situation a future Government can bring legislation to the Dáil and let us have a public debate about reducing the number of sick pay days, as opposed to empowering the Minister simply to be able to do that. We think it should be a one-way upwards ratcheting mechanism in terms of sick days.

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