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

To be clear, it is not that the legal advice is that the provision is not constitutional or we could not do it. It is that when we are drafting legislation, we should try to make sure that penalties are proportionate to the offence. That is a basic principle of justice. A more severe offence has a bigger penalty. As things stand, it is two weeks' entitlement and two weeks' penalty in respect of paternity leave. What we originally proposed for sick pay was ten days' entitlement and 20 weeks' penalty, which appeared disproportionate. We are now proposing that if somebody is not given ten days' sick pay, he or she will have to get the ten days and the penalty would be up to 20 days or four weeks. The penalty, if you like, is double the offence. If we decide to go beyond ten days, we could go up from four weeks, but it will be four weeks from day one.

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