Covid-19 Tests Dail Éireann — 2020-09-08 ============================================================ Seán Sherlock (LAB), Cork East Again, I welcome that the Minister is proactive in respect of engaging with the stakeholders. We know that 79% of early years professionals do not have a sick pay scheme at work. People may not make the link between testing for Covid-19 and a sick pay scheme but if there is a sick pay scheme in situ that is embedded within the system, it gives comfort largely to parents who we are talking about across the sector. There is a Labour Party Bill on a sick pay scheme for all workers but for this sector in particular, it gives comfort to the professionals working within it that they can avail of such a scheme if it were available. As I said, 79% of early years professionals do not have a sick pay scheme at work. If we are talking about continuing professional development, CPD, and embedding more formalisation of the sector in Irish society, this has to become one of the bulwarks for ensuring that workers are looked after. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-09-08/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-09-08