John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

In recent days, an issue has arisen regarding the imposition of PRSI on the redundancy payments of former Waterford Crystal workers. I believe the Department of Social and Family Affairs made a mistake in defining the workers' redundancy payments as income when it should have been considered a termination lump sum payment. The result has been that the workers have been landed with a PRSI bill because the receiver at Waterford Crystal has refused to pay their previous employer's PRSI bill. The workers have lost almost the total value of their pensions, not to speak of having lost their jobs. I ask the Taoiseach, as a former Minister for Finance, to have his office look into the matter.

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