Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I note a new social welfare Bill in the list of legislation. In that context I ask the Taoiseach about the plight of people who have lost their jobs and who are waiting for redundancy payments from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. A person came to see me last week who lost his job in the first week of January of this year. He is now being told he will not receive his redundancy payment until October. I understand there are currently 39,000 people who have lost their jobs who are waiting for redundancy payments as a result of the delays in processing the redundancy rebates. Will the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation who has direct responsibility, take whatever action is necessary to speed up the processing of these claims? It is bad enough to lose one's job without having to wait for the best part of a year before the redundancy rebate comes through.

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