Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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72. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the rationale for including only three statutory sick leave days in the Sick Leave Bill 2022 including lobbying by employers in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18780/22]

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 is being prioritised.

Ireland is an outlier among advanced European economies in not providing for any statutory employer paid sick leave. It is simply not right that people who are sick are often afraid to take time off for fear of a major reduction in their income and it's not good when it comes to public health. There's a risk of them infecting co-workers and customers as well.

The Bill is intended to provide a level of protection to low paid employees, who may have no company sick pay schemes and cannot afford to miss work. However, in developing the Bill, I was very mindful of the unique economic challenges faced by employers due to Covid-19 and Brexit related impacts. Imposing excessive new costs on businesses at this time could jeopardise jobs. As a starting point, this law will cover the three waiting days before eligibility for State Illness Benefit. This Bill will ensure that all employees are better off and will have financial protection from day one of a medically certified absence.

I have given a lot of consideration to the pressures on business at the current time, and the design parameters and the incremental approach to be taken are in recognition of this. Employers will have time to adjust to the associated costs. All employees will eventually be entitled to ten days, or two weeks, of sick pay per year.

Pre-legislative scrutiny has been completed and I have reviewed the Joint Oireachtas Committee's recommendations and made necessary amendments arising.

I am presenting the Bill for the second stage debate in the Dáil on Thursday April 7th and I hope to progress the Bill through all stages as soon as possible thereafter.