Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank members and witnesses for participating in today's meeting. I remind members that they are required to participate in the meeting either within the committee room or remotely from within the Leinster House complex. Should a division occur, any members participating remotely will be required to make their way to the meeting room within the normal division time to vote before returning to their original location. The proceedings of Oireachtas committees are now conducted without the requirement for social distancing, with normal capacity in committee rooms restored. However, committees are taking a graduated approach to this change. Members and witnesses have the option to attend meetings in the relevant committee room or online, through Microsoft Teams. All those attending the committee room and its environs should continue to wear masks throughout the meeting. They may only be removed when addressing the committee. Members should continue to wash their hands, avail of sanitiser outside and inside the committee room, be respectful of other people's physical space, and practise good respiratory etiquette. Members and all in attendance are asked to exercise personal responsibility in protecting themselves and others from the risk of contracting Covid-19. Those with any Covid symptoms, no matter how mild, should not attend.

Apologies have been received from Deputy Matt Shanahan.

As normal, all documentation for the meeting has been circulated on Microsoft Teams. The meeting has been convened to consider the Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill 2022, which was referred to the select committee by the order of the Dáil on 3 February 2022. This short and technical Bill will resolve an issue arising regarding some employees who were laid off when Covid-19 restrictions were in place or who may be laid off over the next three-year period. Periods spent laid-off within the final three years of an employee's service do not count as reckonable service for the purposes of statutory redundancy payments. This means that a person who was laid off because of essential Covid-19-related restrictions will not have that period counted as reckonable service if he or she is made redundant within three years of the end of the emergency period. This Bill addresses that issue. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Damien English, who is accompanied by officials from his Department. Would the Minister of State like to make a short comment on the Bill?