Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome this timely legislation. I also welcome the fact that all Stages are being dealt with in the House this week. I hope the Bill has a speedy passage through the Houses because sensitive redundancy negotiations are taking place in Letterkenny at the Unify plant, where 250 workers were laid off three weeks ago.

Senator Mansergh asked where the cut-off point in terms of retrospective redundancy allowances should be located. Perhaps we could start with Castlecomer, where people were made redundant before Christmas. In light of those recent redundancies and the fact that the legislation could have been before the House two to three weeks ago, I support Senator Coghlan's amendment on retrospective payments for people who were made redundant at the beginning of the year.