Rolanda: Time off for dependants, would you be entitled to a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with the death of a dependant?

Seamus: That's right.

Rolanda: But I suppose that time off for dependants leave has always seemed to be quite short. But again, what is reasonable?

Seamus: From my experience, some employers will within the handbook set out the number of days that you're allowed off, and they will say whether it's an immediate family member or close family member and all sorts of stuff like that. They'll cover it off.

But I've never seen three days for bereavement of a parent or a sibling or something along those lines. Certainly, within TNC guidance for teachers, they set out the number of days. That will need to be looked at if this legislation is brought in. I think probably there will be a period of time before we see it. It might be a number of months before we get anything in writing, but it certainly is a positive step for us.

Scott: We usually just follow the GB situation, so it'll probably mirror that. There's not going to be any resistance. If 100% of our audience are in favour of it and the unions are in favour and the CBI and everyone else, I don't think there's going to be any difficulty for Diane Dodds to get it through the committee.

Seamus: The regulations, as you say, are up on Legal-Island's website there. You can pull them down and have a look at them. They're fairly short and sweet. It's not that there are reams of pages to go through or anything like that. I would expect that it will be very similar for what's brought in for us here in Northern Ireland.

Scott: They come with all the usual protections on detriment and unfair dismissal and the rest of the things that would apply, the automatic unfair dismissal things and so on. I'm sure that it'll be the same in Northern Ireland.