Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the sentiments but Deputy O'Reilly's amendment goes a bit further than that intent. I refer to the Deputy's comments in relation to collective redundancies. It must be noted that all eligible employees are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment and where an employer is unable to pay, the State steps in to ensure that this is honoured as is.

In an insolvency situation, employees are already considered preferred creditors in terms of wage arrears, outstanding holiday pay, pension scheme contributions and statutory redundancy. Their statutory entitlements are also guaranteed by the State via the insolvency payment schemes. Enhanced redundancies, over and above this statutory entitlement, are a voluntary matter between employers and employees. Ireland's system of industrial relations is based on a voluntary approach and collective agreements are not, therefore, binding in law.

Providing for enhanced entitlements would have serious consequences. It would risk creating two classes of employees with a special class of workers made redundant due to insolvency granted enhanced legal rights that go beyond those afforded to workers who are made redundant for other reasons. This would be constitutionally unsound. It would also have a massive knock-on effect on other creditors, such as SMEs and suppliers, which themselves are employers and which, due to liquidity issues, may find themselves making their workers redundant.

This is not the place for that, although I accept the best intentions of the Deputy. I am more than happy to engage on, and I accept the Deputy's point about, tactical redundancies. These amendments would have a much bigger impact with the insertion of these sections and, therefore, I am not in a position to accept this amendment.