Currently Irish employers are not obliged to provide sick pay to employees.
The government is looking to make it mandatory for employers to provide sick pay for their workers.
A public consultation is underway on plans for the introduction of a statutory scheme, which was launched by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the initiative was formed with a view of bringing Ireland in line with other OECD countries by providing for a statutory entitlement to sick pay.
This would mean than an employer, by law, must provide sick pay to an employee who is unable to work due to illness.
While many employers in Ireland already provide sick pay to employees, there is no legal obligation for them to do so.
The issue has been highlighted during the pandemic, over fears low paid workers are turning up for work for financial reasons, even if they are sick.
However, CEO of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME), Neil McDonnell says a compulsory scheme would pose a difficulty for small businesses in particular.
''A lot of big businesses like the IT companies and foreign multi nationals, the cost of employment to them in relation to the percentage of their sales figures is tiny, it may be one or two or three percent in some cases'', he said.
''But for a small service based business here it could be 70 or 80%''.
