Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. M. Ahern): I welcome the supportive comments of the Senators who have spoken. We all want to achieve a reasonable level of increased statutory payment to employees who are unlucky and lose their jobs through redundancy. As well as giving increased payments to redundant employees, the Bill will, when enacted, amend the insolvency payments legislation to allow employees of insolvent companies to claim their minimum notice entitlements through a liquidator without having to obtain an award from the Employment Appeals Tribunal. As I said, the Bill will come into effect on Sunday, 25 May 2003, or as soon as possible thereafter, for employees declared redundant on or after that date. The date on which an employee is declared redundant is the date on which notice of the proposed redundancy is issued to him or her. I thank Senators for their help in ensuring the Bill was passed speedily by this House.