Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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158. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the status of his pledge to introduce a statutory sick pay scheme; when he will be publishing proposals on the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27142/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to introducing a statutory sick pay scheme in Ireland and work is well underway in this regard with Heads of Bill currently being drafted.

Officials from my Department have held several meetings in recent weeks with the Department of Social Protection and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to finalise the design parameters of the scheme. The Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, T.D., also met with the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, T.D., to discuss the development of the scheme on April 22nd.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment is also being finalised and the Tánaiste plans to bring a Memo for Government to cabinet in the coming weeks seeking approval to draft the General scheme of a Bill. The Tánaiste has also secured a commitment from the Office of the Attorney General that the drafting of the Sick Leave Bill will be prioritised.

By bringing forward this legislation we will be adding to the range of reforms in recent years to improve social protections for workers including the introduction of paternity benefit, parental leave benefit, enhanced maternity benefit, a national minimum wage set at a higher rate than most of our peers, restrictions on zero-hour contracts and the extension of social insurance benefits to the self-employed and those working in the gig economy for the first time, such as treatment benefit, invalidity pension, jobseekers benefit and a contributory state pension with no means test.