Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

We do not have discretion and must follow the law. We received legal advice in this regard. We have published the heads of new legislation to address such situations and will publish the Bill, which will deal with collective redundancies, to prevent a repeat of the Irish Ferries case on land shortly. It was a major part of the social partnership talks.

On taxation status, if they were not declared to be redundancies under the Acts or the rebate was unpaid, I understand the workers would have been liable for tax on the payments they received. It would have been a different tax arrangement.

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