Statutory Sick Pay Ireland 2026: How Many Days, the Rate, the €110 Cap and the Records to Keep

Statutory sick pay Ireland 2026, in one line: an employee with at least 13 weeks' continuous service gets up to 5 paid sick days per calendar year, paid by the employer at 70% of normal daily pay, capped at €110 a day, for days covered by a medical cert. The rules come from the Sick Leave Act 2022, and the 5 days have applied since 1 January 2024.

Getting it wrong costs money either way. Underpay and the employee can bring a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Pay a sixth day by mistake and you have paid for a day the law doesn't require. The usual cause isn't the law – it's that nobody knows how many statutory days each person has already used this year.

Statutory sick pay Ireland 2026: still 5 days

The Act started at 3 days and lets the Minister raise the number by order. The plan was 7 days in 2025 and 10 in 2026. That plan was dropped: on 8 April 2025 the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment confirmed the entitlement stays at 5 days per calendar year.

You will still find payroll and HR pages saying "10 days from 2026". They describe the old plan. The Irish Statute Book's list of orders under the Act, updated to 13 October 2026, still shows only S.I. No. 10 of 2024.

What about 2027? Nothing has been announced. Budget 2027 (6 October 2026) did not touch sick leave, and in January 2026 the Minister said the door to more days was "firmly closed" (Irish Examiner). Any increase would need a new ministerial order, and the Act limits each order to 3 extra days. Plan on 5 days for 2027 unless an order is made.

Who qualifies: 13 weeks' service and a medical cert

Section 5 of the Act sets three conditions:

• 13 weeks' continuous service with you before the sick day. Someone who left and came back within 26 weeks keeps their earlier service.
• A medical cert signed by a registered medical practitioner, stating the employee is unable to work. Citizens Information says the cert should cover the absence from day 1.
• A day they would normally work. A Monday-to-Friday employee who is sick over a weekend uses no statutory days for Saturday and Sunday.

There are no waiting days: the first certified day is the first statutory sick day. The days don't have to be in a row. Part-time staff get the full 5 days, and probationers, apprentices and agency workers are covered too. A person with two jobs gets 5 days from each employer once they have 13 weeks with that employer (WRC).

How much to pay: 70% of normal pay up to €110 a day

The daily rate is set by S.I. No. 607 of 2022. It is a gross amount: the lower of €110 or 70% of normal daily pay. Regular bonuses and allowances that don't depend on the work done are included; overtime and commission are not. What "normal daily pay" means depends on how the person is paid:

The cap bites once normal daily pay passes €157.14. For someone on a five-day week, that's weekly pay above about €785.71. Below that, you pay 70%. A part-timer on 5 hours at €16 an hour earns €80 a day, so statutory sick pay is €56 a day.

Worked example: two employees, two sick spells

Notice what the example needed: a count of each person's days per calendar year, their start date, the cert, and a daily rate per person. Those are the same items the law asks you to keep.

Statutory sick pay, Illness Benefit and your company sick pay scheme

Three different things often get mixed up:

• Statutory sick pay is paid by you, the employer, for up to 5 days.
• Illness Benefit is a weekly social welfare payment from the Department of Social Protection. The employee claims it, needs enough PRSI contributions and must apply within 6 weeks. It can't be paid for the same days as statutory sick pay.
• A company scheme is whatever your contract or handbook offers on top.

How they fit together, according to Citizens Information: Illness Benefit normally has 3 unpaid waiting days. If the illness lasts more than 5 days and the employee is getting statutory sick pay, Illness Benefit starts from day 6. If the 5 days are already used up and they get sick again later in the year, it starts from day 4. The maximum personal rate in 2026 is €254 a week, and Budget 2027 adds €10 from January 2027.

Two rules catch employers out. First, statutory sick days can't be tacked on to a spell that is already running (section 5(4A)). An employee still out sick on 1 January, or already on Illness Benefit when they reach 13 weeks' service, stays on Illness Benefit for that spell; the statutory days only become available once they are back at work. Second, your own scheme replaces statutory sick pay only if it is more favourable as a whole. Section 9 of the Act compares the service needed, waiting days, how long and how much it pays, and the reference period. A scheme that pays full salary but only after three unpaid days isn't automatically better – check it, and don't pay both.

The records an employer should keep

Section 13 of the Act requires a record of statutory sick leave for every employee who takes it, with:

1. the employee's period of employment;
2. the dates and times of the statutory sick leave;
3. the rate of statutory sick pay paid.

You must keep the record for 4 years. Failing to make or keep it without reasonable cause is an offence carrying a class C fine, up to €2,500 according to the WRC. In practice, keep the medical certs with the record too: they are the proof that each paid day was a certified day.

A good record also answers the questions you'll get every time someone rings in sick: how many statutory days has this person used this year, have they passed 13 weeks, and what is their daily rate? If a sick day was shorter than a full day, note the times – the Act asks for them.

Our annual leave and sick leave tracker for Irish employers keeps this in one workbook. You log each absence on one line with the type (certified or uncertified sick leave), dates, half days and whether there's a medical cert. It counts working days on each person's own pattern, works out the date they pass 13 weeks, and shows statutory sick days used, left and paid per calendar year. It flags sick days marked "no cert" and those that fall before the 13 weeks are up. The daily rate is weekly pay ÷ days per week at 70%, capped at €110, and the figures are editable in SETTINGS; for variable pay you check the 13-week average yourself. If the sick day leaves a shift short, a staff rota with cover per time slot shows who else is on.