Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for the opportunity to raise this matter and I will be brief. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, who will reply to the debate but I am disappointed, given the fact that I met him in the public corridors five minutes ago, that the Minister with responsibility for this matter, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, has not turned up in the Chamber.

Today, this month's live register figures were published and almost 450,000 people are unemployed. I will not dwell on the Government's lack of a jobs policy. I am here to try to assist in problem solving because for thousands of people getting their statutory entitlement to a redundancy payment is proving to be an extraordinary endurance course. I raised this matter some weeks ago with the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who seemed to take some comfort in the fact that the waiting list for redundancy payments had been cut from 43,000 last November to 33,000 in August this year. On that basis of progress, we will be waiting several years before the list will be cleared, given the fact that thousands more come onto the list every month.

To me, the State should aspire to pay statutory entitlement to people going through a very traumatic time in the shortest period possible, and an eight-week period should be the target for the Government to set itself. That is not an excessively burdensome target. The basis for achieving this is in the Croke Park agreement, which states:

In view of the major economic challenges facing the country the Government are committed to obtaining maximum efficiencies from, and reducing the size of, the Public Service. The Government and the public service unions confirm that in the context of a reduction in numbers serving in the public service:

(i) it will from time to time be necessary to increase staffing in certain designated priority areas in accordance with Government policy

It also states that the Minister reserves the right to redeploy civil servants as may be required and appropriate between Departments to meet priority needs.

The question that the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, has to answer, and that the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, might attempt to answer, is what priority is attached by the Government to paying people their statutory redundancy when they lose their jobs. I understand it is a cumbersome process if a former employer does not co-operate and a recommendation is required from the Employment Appeals Tribunal. However, in the majority of cases it should be straightforward. I am sure the Minister of State accepts that seven or eight months is an unacceptable delay.

The genesis of the solution to the problem is the Croke Park agreement and I wish the Minister would get on with it. Perhaps he is unable to exert sufficient influence around the Cabinet table — I am loathe to indicate he might be the weakest link in Cabinet — to get the necessary resources.

The subject matter of many parliamentary questions today is when the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation will pay individuals named in those questions their entitlement to statutory redundancy. The Minister of State can head off this issue by obtaining sufficient resources. People ring up and are referred to the National Employment Rights Authority; the Department will not even answer the phone. I could understand that if we were making progress in payments but there is a seven or eight month waiting list for people for their statutory entitlement and that is simply not acceptable. I urge the Minister of State to problem solve and obtain more staff resources. In many areas in the public and Civil Service there is not the same demand now that there is a reduction of activity in our economy, and human resources need to be directed to where we have problems. I implore the Minister of State to address the issue.

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