Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his appointment to his prestigious post and wish him well. I have no doubt that he will do extremely well given his long and great career. He is following the steps of great Limerick politicians. I welcome Senator McHugh as a new Member and thank him for tabling this motion.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment carried out an internal review of the redundancy payments scheme earlier this year. With an almost 50% increase in the number of redundancy claims during 2001 compared to 2000, the Department reviewed the operation of redundancy legislation and scheme from an administrative efficiency perspective as well as from a customer service aspect. The purpose of this internal review was to examine the rationale and continued relevance of the scheme, discover whether its delivery could be made more customer-friendly, find out if greater use of information technology could be made and suggest ways in which the operation of the scheme could be streamlined.

The review was completed in April 2002. It developed a vision of an improved statutory redundancy scheme which would involve appropriate, yet affordable, payments to redundant workers to meet the original principles, be simple to understand and involve administrative arrangements to maximise the use of e-government to deliver the scheme quickly and efficiently. As the review was nearing completion, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, in the face of certain cases where only statutory redundancy was paid to employees, initiated a campaign to have the benefits provided for under the scheme substantially increased.