Seanad debates

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Action Plan for Jobs: Statements

 

4:40 pm

Photo of Mary Ann O'BrienMary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with Senator Zappone.

I welcome the Minister and I thank him for attending. He is bathing in flattery but he has been doing the most amazing job for us all. I agree with Senator White about his personal commitment and passion. He must be exhausted from all the trade missions he has been on. He has been proactive and innovative with the microfinance fund, the credit loan guarantee scheme and the action plan for jobs and through his close collaboration with the Minister for Social Protection on the jobs activation measure.

However, this brings me to the issue I wish to raise. Will he collaborate further with the Minister because I am concerned about her mad, crazed proposal to transfer the cost of sick pay to employers? Why do employers pay PRSI? If a company has a sick pay scheme, logic and precedence dictates that absenteeism will increase if someone is out sick. It will double the cost for a company such as mine because if someone is out sick, someone else has to be hired to do his or her job. Business costs will increase and our competitiveness to win tenders against savage, aggressive competitors, mainly in Europe, will be dangerously eroded, potentially resulting in the loss of millions of euro worth of business. While the Minister is collaborating with the Minister for Social Protection, will he pay a call on the Minister for Health to discuss the medical profession's blind nonchalance, which aids and abets the malingerers who take advantage of the easy sick pay certification system we operate in Ireland? I am as passionate as the Minister and his Department about creating a fertile environment for all businesses to flourish in these troubled times but we cannot allow the sick pay proposal or any increase in PRSI to go through.

I acknowledge how well the Minister has done in attracting foreign direct investment. These companies engage in due diligence as they consider where they will place their business globally. The sick pay scheme will not do us any good in the eyes of foreign investors. It is profoundly depressing that we are discussing an action that will prevent job creation, lead to job losses and make businesses less competitive. More Members should be present because the businesses the Minister is supporting are, in turn, supporting the economy. If we all went down the street now to meet retailers, they would say the scales are fragile and one little push will send them over the edge. This proposal is a push too far and it will prevent companies from employing people in the future and it might even serve to put some of them out of business. I acknowledge the Minister for Social Protection needs to make savings but if she examines the business strategy of Ireland Inc. and the bigger picture, she will recognise that this will have drastic results in the future for small businesses.

She says it will not affect small businesses. Let us take a business like mine, a small to medium-sized enterprise, SME, with 120 employees and a turnover of just under ยค20 million. I know for sure, having discussed the matter at length at management meetings and board level, that the proposed sick pay arrangements would have a disastrous effect on our company?s competitiveness. I am one of the great stories in the exports sector, as are many of my colleagues in the food industry. It is not just the little retailer or the hairdresser but the Minister?s clients who admire him who are concerned about how this proposal could affect them. I implore him to collaborate with his ministerial colleague to ensure this arrangement is not implemented.

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