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

What was important for me was that the Debenhams workers and the unions had been negotiating with the liquidators and were, on the face of it, making progress. An offer was put on the table earlier in the summer. That was not accepted, or was not deemed to be enough. That was not my decision. It was up to the employees, shop stewards and unions to make a decision on that. Negotiations have been on and off with the liquidator. Again, it is the role of the liquidator, under the guidance of the courts, to do that within existing law. Its job is to work with the unions, and the unions must do a good job to make sure everyone's entitlements are honoured.

The State's role is to make sure we honour the statutory entitlements and pay out as soon they are looked for. In most cases, they have been paid out. Some cases have been slightly delayed.

The Deputy might have mentioned Roches Stores. There were a few complications relating to the transfer of responsibilities at an earlier stage but that has all been teased out. The majority of them have got their funds and we had to make sure of that. As to where this ends up, I cannot predict that. It is a private company, not a State company. We are not involved in it. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have addressed this. The Workplace Relations Commission was involved and chaired talks. There are attempts again now to bring people around the table. The only way this will be resolved is around the table trying to work out if there is a mechanism to find extra resources to pay the employees in excess of their statutory entitlements. The liquidator is in charge of that process because he is in charge of managing whatever assets are left.