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

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 3, to delete lines 15 to 23 and substitute the following:

“(b)whose entitlement to a lump sum payment under section 19 arises during the period beginning on 13 March 2020 and ending on 31 January 2025, and

(c)who was laid off during the period beginning on 13 March 2020 and ending on 31 January 2022 due to the effect of measures required to be taken by his or her employer in order to comply with, or as a consequence of, Government policy to prevent, limit, minimise or slow the spread of infection of Covid-19.”.

As Deputies are aware, the Bill as published provided that the payment would apply to workers who were laid off due to Covid-19 restrictions for periods from 13 March 2020 to the end of September 2021 and who are made redundant before 30 September 2024. This reflected the situation at the time of publication, when restrictions were easing and the economy was reopening. I think that was back in September 2021. However, we all know we suffered a setback as a result of the Omicron variant and some restrictions were necessary during December 2021 and January 2022. This particularly affected the entertainment and hospitality industries. This was well flagged by Deputies in their contributions on Second Stage in the Dáil. Therefore, to ensure that all periods of temporary lay-off due to Covid-19 restrictions are encompassed by this new payment, the amendment will extend the lay-off periods covered to 31 January 2022. It also means the payment will apply to workers who are made redundant before 31 January 2025. Those are the three years referenced earlier on. This will increase the maximum any worker will receive to €2,268 if he or she was on lay-off due to Covid-19 restrictions for the entire period between 13 March 2020 and 31 January 2022 and normally earned at least €600 per week.

Amendments Nos. 6 and 7 provide for the deletion of the word “emergency” on two occasions where it occurs in this Bill. This is not to downplay the emergency and exceptional nature of restrictions or the gravity of their effect. It is because previous amendments to the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 refer to the “emergency period” in the particular context of section 12A. Since the extension we are now proposing is no longer clearly linked to that specific timeframe, the deletion will avoid any ambiguity as to the period eligible to be covered by the Covid-19 lay-off payment. The amendments here reflects the change we were looking at ourselves but also that members clearly raised a few weeks ago in the debate on Second Stage.

This amendment is appropriate and I recommend that members accept it.