Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

What the Government does not seem to realise, unfortunately, is that the rebate on redundancy payments comes from the social insurance fund, and who pays into the social insurance fund by and large but employers. Employers who pay into the social insurance fund are now expected to pay on the double to the extent of 85% when someone becomes redundant. I cannot calculate the exact sum but it is roughly estimated that this could impose up to €250 million on the backs of small, struggling SMEs at a time when they are literally surviving from week to week if not from day to day. The Government has sought to justify it on the basis that there is no rebate in the UK, but the rates of redundancy there are far less, and even with a 60% rebate it was costing far more to make a person redundant in this country than it was in the UK. Now it will cost two and a half times as much to make a person redundant in this country than it does in the UK. That is a comparative disadvantage. It must be seen as a competitiveness issue-----

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