Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 28: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the total number of claims for redundancy payments waiting to be processed at the latest date for which figures are available; the average time taken to process a claim; the steps being taken to speed up the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45553/10]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation in respect of each year from 2002 to 2009 and to date in 2010, the number of redundancies notified to his Department; the number of projected redundancies for the full year of 2010; the amount of money paid out in statutory redundancy payments in respect of each year from 2002 to 2009 and to date in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45536/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 28 and 45 together.

My Department currently administers the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) in relation to redundancy matters on behalf of the Department of Social Protection. There are two types of payment made from the SIF – rebates to those employers who have paid statutory redundancy to eligible employees, and statutory lump sums to employees whose employers are insolvent and/or in receivership/liquidation.

Table 1 sets out the number of statutory redundancy claims received in the years 2002 to 2009 and provisional figures for January to October 2010. These figures reflect the number of employees who actually qualified for statutory redundancy lump sum payments. They do not reflect those who lost their jobs with less than two years service in employment. It is not possible to project the number of redundancies that will arise in 2010 as this will depend on a number of factors, including economic factors and the rate of recovery in the economy. However, it is clear from the statistics available for the first ten months of 2010 that there is a welcome fall off in the level of new claims being lodged with my Department. In the ten-month period January to October 2010, there was an average fall off in claims received of 23% when compared with the corresponding ten-month period in 2009 – 51,385 as against 66,989 - with the claims fall off particularly in evidence in October 2010 with a 40% reduction in new claims received.

Table 2 sets out the monies paid out of the Social Insurance Fund in respect of redundancy claims for the years 2002 - 2009 and up to 31 October, 2010. It should be noted that all figures provided for 2009 and to date in 2010 are provisional figures. It is not possible to project the amount that will be paid out in 2010 on redundancy claims as this will hinge on a number of variables including the number of claims received, the length of service of individual claimants etc.

The Redundancy Payments Section of my Department is currently processing claims in general dating from May 2010 so that the waiting time is currently around 6 months. Of course in some instances, where the necessary supporting documentation for lump sum claims is not provided to my Department, or where queries arise, processing of claims can be further delayed until the required documentation is provided and/or outstanding queries are resolved.

Efforts continue to be made by my Department to reduce claims processing times. Measures already taken in the Department to alleviate the pressures on the Payments area include:

Almost doubling the number of staff working solely on redundancy payment claims through reassignment to a current level of 52 full time equivalents;

Prioritisation of the Department's overtime budget towards staff in the Section to tackle the backlog outside normal hours;

Establishment of a special call handling facility in NERA to deal with the huge volume of telephone calls from people and businesses concerned about their payments;

Better quality information relating to current processing times on the Department's website;

Engagement with the Revenue Commissioners to facilitate the offset of redundancy rebate payments by employers against existing outstanding tax liabilities which those employers owe to the Revenue Commissioners.

Whilst the backlog of claims and waiting times remain at unacceptable levels, improvements are evident. In 2009, my Department processed 50,664 claims, up 70% on the previous year. Furthermore, the level of new claims processed in the first ten months of 2010 was 63,484 – up over 66% on the corresponding ten-month period in 2009 (38,149) and surpassing the total amount of claims processed for the full year 2009. The backlog of claims is decreasing - reducing from its highest level in November 2009 of 43,608 to a level of 28,300 at the end of October 2010. I expect that the claims backlog will reduce to somewhere between 25,000 and 26,000 by year end.

Responsibility for the payment functions arising under the Redundancy and Insolvency payment schemes is due to be transferred to the Department of Social Protection with effect from 1 January 2011. In transferring the functions between Departments, it is the intention that this will operate seamlessly and without any adverse impact on the service levels being experienced by individuals or the business community awaiting payment of redundancy claims.

Table 1: Actual Statutory Redundancies for years 2002 to 2009 and up to end October, 2010

Table 2: Expenditure on Statutory Redundancies for years 2002 to 2009 and up to end October, 2010