Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairperson. I am glad to be here to focus on, discuss and introduce the Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill 2022 to Seanad Éireann. It is a short but important piece of legislation in response to the Covid-19 situation.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, the Government has sought to protect as many businesses, jobs and workers as possible through the early introduction of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS, and its longer-term successor, the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS. This was followed by many targeted measures for businesses, which have been critical in keeping them afloat and preventing redundancies over the last two years.

Many sectors are yet again rebounding relatively quickly since the lifting of restrictions. This is a real tribute to the resilience of businesses and employees. We have good reason to be optimistic but a uniform and smooth recovery is not guaranteed and, regrettably, some redundancies will probably arise, which brings me to the objective of this Bill.

This Bill will resolve an issue arising for employees who were laid off for periods because of the necessary Covid-19 public health restrictions and who were subsequently made redundant. The Bill will ensure that a worker who was laid off due to Covid-19 restrictions is not further disadvantaged. On being made redundant, that person will receive the same statutory redundancy entitlement as though he or she had not been laid off due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Under existing redundancy provisions, a period of lay-off within the final three years of service before a worker is made redundant is not allowable as reckonable service. Therefore, that lay-off period is not counted towards a worker’s statutory redundancy payment. As a result of the necessary Government decisions to close and restrict certain sectors of our economy, some workers lost the opportunity to accrue reckonable service. This Bill will provide for a Covid-19 related lay-off payment from the State, which, in the event of the worker’s redundancy, will cover lay-off periods due to Covid-19 restrictions.

During the debate on Second Stage in the Dáil, some members queried why lay-off periods beyond 30 September were not being covered by the Covid-19 related lay-off payment. At the time, that was because of the link made between the payment and the emergency period covered by the section 12A suspension of a worker’s right to trigger a redundancy.

It was the right approach when the policy was approved and brought through Cabinet. We listened to Deputies on the Second Stage and Committee Stage discussions, however, and agreed that the arrival of the Omicron variant and new restrictions demanded further consideration to increase the timelines.

Accordingly, we proposed an amendment to the Bill on Committee Stage, which was agreed to, extending the period covered out to 31 January 2022. This new period covers the additional restrictions that were in place until 22 January and allows some additional lead-in time during which the most affected businesses may have been preparing to reopen fully. For completeness, I should also mention that I also tabled an amendment to correct a minor cross-referencing error in the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021 on Committee Stage.

I will turn back to the substance of the Bill, again, to clarify who qualifies for this payment. A worker does not have to have been in receipt of any form of State payment during the lay-off period. The criteria are simply that the person qualifies for redundancy in the usual way, was laid off because of Covid-19 restrictions and was made redundant within three years of those restrictions ending.

The amount an eligible worker will receive will depend on the length of time he or she was placed on lay-off due to Covid-19 before the date they were made redundant. The Bill does not change the fact that the employers are obliged to pay statutory redundancy to eligible workers, which excludes lay-off periods, in the final three years of employment. Employers will not be liable for this additional payment, however. The Covid-19 restrictions that resulted in lay-offs were completely outside the employers' control. Imposing this cost on employers would, therefore, be unfair. It would also conflict with wider Government policy, which since the start of the pandemic has been to minimise financial hardship for businesses and their workers during the most challenging of times.

This Bill provides the best outcome for both employers and employees. It will provide the legislative basis for the Department of Social Protection to process applications and make this payment to workers. It will be an employer-led online application process in the first instances. This is the most efficient approach from a customer service perspective. In the event that an employer fails to make an application, however, I assure Members that manual applications from workers will be accepted and they will not lose out.

Intensive work is ongoing on the development of the necessary systems. Officials in the Department of Social Protection expect to open the application process during quarter 2 of this year. I thank the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, all the officials and her team for their important work in facilitating this.

This Bill will improve the entitlements of workers without imposing additional costs on employers. I commend the Bill to the House. I look forward to hearing Senators' contributions tonight.