Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English, to the Chamber this evening. I will be supporting the Government countermotion. It is recognised that there is no statutory sick pay in Ireland, and we are an outlier among EU member states in this regard. As was mentioned earlier, Ireland is one of only five countries in Europe that does not have sick pay. We have illness benefit, which is a payment made by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. In 2019 it amounted to about €607 million and it is expected to amount to €600 million in 2020.

I welcome the fact the Tánaiste publicly stated his intention to establish a statutory sick pay scheme in full consultation with employers and unions. This will build on the various improvements that have been made to social protections for workers in the past five years, including parental leave, paternity leave and the extension of social insurance benefits to the self-employed and those in the gig economy.

While most businesses in the country have reopened and are trading, many are faced with the prospect of a slow recovery in domestic consumer demand and increased international demand, together with the overhang of costs and losses which arose during the global pandemic. Micro and small businesses are particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of Covid-19. Many businesses, even while closed, continue to incur costs, including fixed costs, without being able to generate revenues. This proposal puts all the cost burden on businesses, which would result in jobs being lost.

Although the introduction of the SSP scheme for short-term illnesses makes sense on some fronts, employees would be paid from the first day of illness, which is particularly important for low-paid employees who do currently do not have paid sick leave. It would also bring Ireland in line with the provisions of other EU member states. The lack of statutory sick pay in Ireland has been criticised for many years but has come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lack of a statutory sick pay scheme has been touted as a contributing factor in the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace, as employees are likely to turn up for work with symptoms to avoid loss of pay. The example of meat factories has been used in the debate. I know of a number of factories in Tipperary where that has been the case and people have gone to work due to being concerned about not getting paid.

A number of issues need to be ironed out. Additional costs would arise for employers through higher payroll costs which would place a significant burden on them at a time when they are struggling with the impact of Covid-19. While larger employers already have sick pay schemes in place, the additional administration and compliance costs for those firms that did not already operate a sick pay scheme would drive micro and small firms out of business. There is a possibility that employees with children would receive lower SSP payments compared with the illness benefit payments that they would receive. If we can introduce statutory sick pay it must be balanced with the need to support the viability of businesses and the enterprise sector, thereby protecting jobs and getting people back to work as quickly as possible.

I wish to respond to the point Senator Gavan made about Sinn Féin's contribution on sick pay in recent years. When this was discussed in 2012 and 2013 one of his colleagues, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, said at the time that introducing sick pay would bring the burden onto employers with no regard for their ability to pay and that on the back of that some employers would be forced to go out of business and people would lose jobs. What is evident tonight is that the issue must be teased out more, which is what I support.