Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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26. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the status of the statutory sick pay Bill; the timeline for the publication of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9901/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to bringing in a statutory sick pay scheme for Ireland and it is my intention that this scheme will be designed in consultation with unions and employer groups. Work is well underway.

I launched a full public consultation on the scheme last November which lasted for 6 weeks and concluded in December 2020. I encouraged employers, employees and unions to engage with this consultation and make their views known. The consultation process saw significant engagement and we received a total of 118 submissions. There is a wide range of views and suggestions from a good mix of stakeholders and all views are being taken into account in developing the scheme. I also continue to engage with the social partners on this matter via the LEEF subgroup on Employment and Enterprise.

We know there are implications, so policy decisions and options have to be worked through properly. We don’t want to jeopardise jobs by placing a burden on business without working through all of the implications and potential solutions.

Some of the issues cut across other government departments, such as taxation issues and illness benefit, so an Interdepartmental Group has been set up to deal with these matters.

The Government is committed to moving through the process and settling issues as quickly as possible and to publish the General Scheme of a Bill at the end of March 2021, with a view to having the Bill enacted as soon as possible after that.