58B.—(1) Without prejudice to subsection (5) and subject to subsections (2) and (7), the Minister may make regulations providing for the payment of remuneration, in circumstances specified in the regulations and subject to such conditions as are specified therein, to a relevant person during a period of sick leave on his or her part, and that remuneration shall be (as the Minister determines and specifies in the regulations)—

(a) the whole amount of the remuneration that would otherwise accrue to the person,

(b) a percentage specified in the regulations of the whole amount referred to in paragraph (a), or

(c) in respect of an initial number of hours, days or weeks of sick leave on the part of that person occurring, in a given period, the whole amount referred to in paragraph (a) and then, in respect of a number of hours, days or weeks of sick leave on that person’s part (whether they are a continuation of the initial occurrence of sick leave in that period or are a separate occurrence of such leave in that period) a percentage specified in the regulations of that whole amount.

(2) Regulations under subsection (1) shall contain a provision that no remuneration shall be paid in respect of any part of a number of hours, days or weeks of sick leave (on the relevant person’s part) that exceeds a number, specified in the regulations, of hours, days or weeks of sick leave (on that person’s part) that may occur in a given period.

(3) Each of the references in subsection (1)(c) to a number of hours, days or weeks, and each reference in subsections (1) and (2) to a given period, is a reference to a number of hours, days or weeks or, as the case may be, a period that the Minister determines and specifies in the regulations for the purpose of the particular provision concerned.

(4) In making regulations under subsection (1), the Minister shall have regard to—

(a) the need to limit the circumstances in which the public service bodies can undertake the commitment of financial resources in making payments in cases in which they are unable to receive the benefit of the services of their public servants,

(b) the resources available, for the time being, to the Exchequer to pay the remuneration of public servants,

(c) without prejudice to paragraph (b), the obligations of the State under the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union done at Brussels on 2 March 2012,

(d) with respect to the specification of conditions for an entitlement to be paid remuneration during a period of sick leave, the desirability of having in place a satisfactory means of verifying that the public servant concerned is unable to attend to his or her duties due to illness or injury, and

(e) the need to protect the health of public servants,

whilst taking account of the desirability of there being a measure of provision, as appears to the Minister to be appropriate and just, for making payments to public servants who are unable to attend to their duties due to illness or injury.

(5) Regulations under subsection (1) may provide in exceptional cases (that is to say cases defined in the regulations by reference to the serious nature of an illness or injury that has occasioned a relevant person’s being on sick leave (which may extend, if the Minister considers appropriate, to the circumstances involving a period of the person’s rehabilitation following an illness or injury of that nature)) and notwithstanding the provision otherwise made by the regulations, for all or any of the following:

(a) that there may be paid to the person remuneration, in respect of the time of his or her sick leave, for a period longer than would otherwise be the case under the regulations;

(b) that there may be paid to the person remuneration, in respect of a particular period of the time of his or her sick leave, of an amount that is greater than the percentage (of the whole amount referred to in subsection (1)(a)) specified in the regulations under subsection (1)(b) or (c);

(c) that the provisions of the regulations shall operate subject to such other modifications as the Minister determines and specifies in the regulations, which may include provision—

(i) limiting the total period in respect of which, in a foregoing case, remuneration may be paid to a relevant person, or

(ii) conferring a power on a person specified in the regulations to determine, in a foregoing case, that after the lapse of a particular period of the time of a relevant person’s sick leave, no further remuneration shall be paid in respect thereof.

(6) Regulations under this section—

(a) may contain such incidental, supplementary or consequential provisions as the Minister considers appropriate, including provisions delegating to the public service body concerned the determination of any matter in respect of which the regulations provide that a determination shall be made, in particular a determination—

(i) as to whether an illness or injury is of a serious nature,

(ii) as to what is an appropriate period of rehabilitation in the circumstances concerned, and

(iii) as to what is satisfactory certification, in writing, by a medical practitioner of any relevant matter; and

(b) may—

(i) if the regulations apply in respect of more than one class of public servant, make different provision for the different classes of public servant to which the regulations apply, and

(ii) otherwise make different provision for different classes of case.

(7) Where, before the commencement of section 7 of the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Act 2013, a period of sick leave, on a relevant person’s part, has begun and continues after the commencement of that section, the arrangements that were in existence before the commencement of that section in respect of the payment of remuneration to that person during his or her sick leave shall continue to apply in respect of so much of that period of sick leave as falls after that commencement and regulations under this section shall not apply to that person until such time as he or she is able again to attend to his or her duties.

(8) For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this section prejudices the operation of the Social Welfare Acts or instruments made thereunder.

(9) Every regulation under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.]