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

There are a couple of issue. The lack of urgency is a matter of the Deputy's opinion. We decided in July or August that we would review this. The programme for Government sets out the commitment to doing so. It is very complicated legislation. Many aspects of the legislation, such as the State's role in making payments, have been negotiated over many years. The latest change to the entitlement to two weeks' pay per year of employment was made in 2002. Paying out statutory entitlements is very costly for the State, but it is very important that when employees are left without their statutory entitlements the State steps in to honour them. That is the result of a lot of negotiation, which was necessary to bring everybody with us. No Minister is in a position to change policy just like that. We must go through a process involving all the stakeholders.

The Deputy notes that the recommendations in the Duffy Cahill report were made to deal with very specific hypothetical cases concerning assets. The legislation is there to remedy such situations but it does not seem to be in use. That is noted in the Duffy Cahill report. We are trying to strengthen that. As a result of this process, we could decide that the legislation is adequate but we need better ways to use it and the resources to do so. This process aims to tease those issues out.

It does involve looking over case law and involving stakeholders. We are prepared to make those changes to see if we can help that. It is an urgent decision. We decided during the summer that we would do this by December, and that is the work that we will do.