Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister and I know the discussions we are having obviously overlap with the Minister for Social Protection. In these situations, it is very important that there is tight communication between both Departments to put in emergency services. The Minister said people can go to their Intreo offices, but in these situations it is important that dedicated are personnel available to people to answer all of their queries. The huge shock that comes with a receivership announcement leaves hundreds of families devastated. There is a lot of confusion. In particular, what workers and subcontractors were trying to find out was whether any of the payments the Minister cited would impact on their redundancy. They would need written confirmation of that because they do not want to find out, months down the line, that they have taken something that has jeopardised that. It is hugely important that we can protect those workers during prolonged periods without income when their employer has gone into receivership.

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