A first time Statutory Sick Pay entitlement for all employees moved closer to enactment with the announcement recently, by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD, that the Government has approved the publication of the General Scheme of the Sick Leave Bill 2022.

The Bill legislates for a statutory sick pay scheme for all employees, phased in over a four-year period. The new scheme will start with three days per year once the Bill is enacted, rising to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025, and ten days in 2026. The timeline has shifted slightly since the Government first announced details of the proposed scheme last year when it said there would be 10 days of sick leave by 2025.

An extension of the Debt Warehousing scheme will also now facilitate those eligible for the scheme to warehouse or ‘park’ certain tax liabilities (e.g. PAYE, VAT) arising in in the period from 1 January to 31 March 2022 (previously the cut-off was 31 December 2021).

As a result, the interest free period will now run from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The businesses must already be eligible for warehousing and have a valid claim during the period from 1 January 2022 to 30 April 2022 for any of the following Government COVID-19 Support Schemes: