Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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5. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the position regarding pledges made by the Government in 2014 to remove an anomaly in the insolvency payments scheme, whereby employees of a limited company which does not go into either liquidation or receivership are not covered by this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33029/15]

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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I raised this issue last year in respect of a case of which the Tánaiste would be well aware. It concerned a language centre that folded up, leaving the workers with nothing when they went to the insolvency payments scheme. We recently had another case where a sole trader ceased trading. The people who sought payment under the scheme were told the company had no insurance so, therefore, they could not-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is over time.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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-----be paid. What has the Tánaiste done in the past year to try to resolve this anomaly?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I am not familiar with the case to which the Deputy just referred. If she would care to give me the details - the name of the employer, company number and so on - I will get her a report on the case. I cannot reply to her on the spot about that particular question because I was not made aware of it. The Deputy did not reference it in her question.

Under the provisions of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984, an employer company shall be regarded as being insolvent if the company is placed into receivership, if a winding-up order has been made or if a resolution for the voluntary liquidation of the company has been passed. The Department is continuing to review the position to establish what, if anything, can be done to progress payments to individuals in situations where employers cease trading without engaging in a formal winding-up process and owe moneys to their employees. The Department is consulting a range of interested parties, including the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Revenue Commissioners, in respect of these issues. Officials from the Department will continue to engage with all relevant parties to try to progress the matter. Given the very difficult legal issues that need to be addressed, I am not in a position to indicate at this stage when the review will be completed. We do not yet have a legal solution to it because there are all sorts of consequences that might flow from taking a legal position that was not carefully worked out. It could damage other people as well as addressing the problems faced by some people. It would be helpful if the Deputy sent us the detail of the case to which she refers.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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I am glad to hear there has been movement and that the Tánaiste and her Department are working on resolving the issue because workers find themselves in a very serious situation workers when a company folds in that way. In the recent case to which I refer, we were told the sole trader should have taken out insurance for insolvency purposes. If that is the position, why are sole traders not obliged to do so when they set up companies, rather than it being a case of finding out after the fact that a sole trader does not have insurance and of workers being left high and dry? Workers must deal with the insolvency payments scheme, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, etc., and they are getting nowhere. Their PRSI payments were not made and right across the board they are not entitled to medical care. It is a very serious issue that should be dealt with in a manner that will resolve the situation for the affected workers.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It is a very difficult legal area. I will outline some of the difficulties. We have reformed the insolvency payments scheme. People are now paid their entitlements very rapidly. It has been transformed since the payments were taken over by the Department of Social Protection. However, the law is, in general, not in the remit of my Department but in that of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. A more appropriate approach might be to widen the remit of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement so that proceedings can be taken. However, in the case of a very small firm - and I do not know what is involved in the cases to which the Deputy refers - the sums of money involved may be very small. They might be €50, €100 or a few hundred euro. Both the principle and the sum are very important to the people who are owed money but to go to the High Court for a hearing would cost something of the order of €20,000 or €25,000. In addressing this, we must find a sensible and proportionate approach which does not have negative knock-on consequences for workers' other rights.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Does Deputy Collins wish to respond?

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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It is okay.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Is the Deputy happy?

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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I am not happy but I am not going to get much more out of it.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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No further questions.