Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The redundancy payments scheme, which is now operated by the Department of Social Protection, provides statutory redundancy entitlements to those who have lost their jobs. In addition, the Department of Social Protection and FÁS offer supports to redundant workers, including assistance in identifying new employment opportunities as well as retraining and up-skilling to improve their employment prospects.

I am advised that the level of redundancies in the economy in the first quarter of this year fell by 24% compared with the same period in 2010. During the period January to March 2011, 13,404 redundancy claims were received by the State compared with 17,598 claims over the same period in 2010. The Government's objective is that the number of redundancies will continue to decrease by putting in place the right policies to support job retention and encourage employment growth.

The forthcoming jobs initiative will outline a range of measures which will be taken across all Departments, including my own, to support job retention and creation by improving the business environment, increasing competitiveness, increasing our exports and restoring confidence in the economy internationally and domestically. The presentation of the jobs initiative will be the first step in the Government's plans to bring about economic recovery. Following the publication of the jobs initiative, I will continue to work with my colleagues in Government to develop medium and longer-term strategies to incentivise job creation further. In addition, my Department's enterprise agencies, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the county and city enterprise boards, will continue to work with their clients on an ongoing basis to support job creation and retention.

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