Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not the senior man in this House and do not want the Leas-Chathaoirleach to refer to me as such. I welcome the announcement that Nextag will create 125 new jobs in Drogheda. I support Senator Quinn in calling for a debate on tourism and the opportunities to create jobs in that sector. The question of sick pay has been raised by several of my colleagues. The imposition on employers of the responsibility for paying the first four weeks of sick leave would be a retrograde step and force further SMEs to close.

Many of us in this House have asked and encouraged SMEs to create one job each. There are approximately 200,000 small and medium enterprises in this country and I do not think the imposition of four weeks' sick pay will encourage them to create jobs. If 60% of the SMEs were to take on one person each, this would make a significant difference to the unemployment figures.

I declare my abhorrence of what happened on the M1 in Belfast last week when David Black was killed on his way to work. He was a young man of 52 years of age with a young family and it would seem he was a great worker. I recall an incident 45 years ago, when I killed a dog belonging to a woman who was clipping a hedge, not too far from where this dastardly act occurred. That was 45 years ago on a Saturday evening at 7 p.m. I killed a red setter and the woman came out with her clippers and she said, "Young man, I'll take the head off you". I replied, "Go ahead, I deserve it." That was for killing a dog 45 years ago at 7 p.m. on a Saturday evening. I have never forgotten it. I cannot for the life of me understand how some of these guys can go to sleep. I did not sleep myself last night because of another reason. I do not understand how they can sleep when they planned to kill a man going to work.