Changes to illness benefit don't target small business, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton has said.

He said the increase in the waiting time from three days to six before a person received sick pay affected the worker who had to wait that length of time before accessing social protection benefit.

“The vast majority of small businesses do not have sick pay schemes of the sort that some larger employers provide. Therefore they will not be affected at all by this scheme and that should be pointed out,” said the Minister.

Mr Bruton acknowledged it was “unfortunate that we have had to reduce sick cover for workers in the way that it has occurred but against a background of a very difficult economic situation and a need to balance our public books, this is a measure that was the least bad of a range of measures”.

Fianna Fáil enterprise spokesman Dara Calleary, who raised the issue during Dáil question time, said this was the third budget in a row that Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton had "specifically gone after small businesses".

He said there had been changes in redundancy rebates, changes to the sick pay scheme and an increase in employer’s PRSI with the jobs budget rate increasing from 4.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent.

Mr Calleary said this was an additional cost to an employer. “If an employee who earns €300 a week is off sick for a week, this measure alone will impose an extra €94 on the employer, without touching the employee’s PRSI.”