Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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123. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the general scheme of the sick leave Bill will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43752/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to introducing a statutory sick pay scheme and as such the Sick Leave Bill 2021 is being prioritised.

I am committed to having legislation in place for 2022 and Heads of Bill will be published over the coming weeks. While there will be some additional costs, the scheme is not intended to impose excessive costs on employers. Taking account of the current economic climate the initial period covered by employers will be modest, but this will increase incrementally.

In the first instance, the legislation will provide for a replacement rate of 70% of gross salary for a duration of 3 working days in a calendar year. Coupled with the 70% rate of pay, the application of a daily earnings cut-off point of €110 will ensure that employers do not face excessive costs and that jobs are jeopardised.

The Bill is intended to provide a minimum level of protection to low paid employees, who may have no company sick pay schemes and have 3 ‘waiting days’ before eligibility for illness benefit from the State.

As a first step, we want to plug the existing gap in coverage which would address the issue of people going to work while sick because of concerns about affordability. By closing the gap between illness benefit and waiting days we would eliminate this issue.

The legislation will not prevent employers offering better sick pay terms or unions negotiating for more through a collective agreement.