Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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118. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the statutory sick leave scheme will commence; the way it compares to other such schemes in operation in Northern Ireland and Britain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60673/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Work is well underway on the Sick Leave Bill. The draft Heads of Bill have been published and are available on my Department’s website.

Our scheme compares very favourably with the UK scheme which uses a flat rate model rather than a percentage of the person's pay.

In the UK , employees are entitled to a flat £96.35 per week for 28 weeks. Our scheme will provide workers with an entitlement to 70% of the daily salary capped at €110 per day for an initial 3 days, which will rise to 10 days over time. Following this, an eligible employee may transition to illness benefit which for a full time employee is €203 per week, with possible increases for dependents, for a period of up to 2 years.

However, for those employers who are genuinely unable to cover the costs, we have, under Section 10 of the draft Bill, included a provision whereby an employer may seek an exemption from the Labour Court from the requirement to pay statutory sick leave for a period not less than three months and not more than twelve months.

Pre-legislative scrutiny commenced on 10th November. Once this process is complete and I receive the Committee's report, I will seek Government approval to present the Bill to the Houses, hopefully early in the new year.