Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have an expressed view, apart from stating that if a fund such as this is deemed appropriate, the question would be who pays into it. This is why we have had a discussion. Any decision in this area involves all of the stakeholders, including employers, employees and representatives bodies. We cannot decide out of the blue to have a fund. We have to work out who would pay into it. On the face of it, it seems to be a worthy suggestion but the question is how we operate it. We have a similar fund, which is the Social Insurance Fund. It pays out on behalf of the State on statutory entitlements. With regard to redundancy, back in 2002 the social partners agreed that redundancy would be two weeks' wages.