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

What it looks like to me is that the Government is punishing workers to compensate for another one of its failed business support schemes. When the ICOB scheme first closed, less than half of qualifying businesses had applied. I appreciate that figure is slightly higher now, but as of last Wednesday, only 10.7 % of applicants have had grant money paid to them. This is a shocking situation. The scheme was announced six months ago, so a little bit more should have been paid out. If the Government is serious about doing both, and the Minister of State says it is, that means delivering for businesses as well as not threatening to punish workers.

Sick pay is a very important instrument of public health. We saw this during the pandemic. There was broad agreement that sick pay during a pandemic, or indeed outside that time, is a very important instrument of public health and is very important for workers, especially those on low incomes. I will say again, because nothing in the Minister of State's answer convinced me otherwise, that the Government is trying to pit workers against small businesses and it is disgraceful.

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