Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English. My apologies for not being here for his earlier contribution. I am speaking on behalf of my colleague, Senator Gavan, who has asked me to pass on his apologies for not being here.

The Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill 2022 is a response to the decision taken at the beginning of the pandemic whereby section 12A of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 was suspended. This was at a time when thousands of people suddenly found themselves out of work and when life as we knew it shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a terrible shock and a traumatic time for those affected by job losses and for so many small business owners who had to close their doors. The decision taken to suspend section 12A at that time was taken to protect workers from being made redundant. Employers were also protected so that they would not be inundated with workers applying for redundancy payments. However, because of the decision, several technical difficulties arose for workers who were laid off or on short time and for those in receipt of the PUP.It raised serious concerns that they would not have the fair calculation of reckonable service if they were made redundant and as a result they might then lose out on significant sums of money regarding a redundancy claim. In response to these concerns, Sinn Féin introduced a Bill last March, the Redundancy Payments (Lay off, Short Time and Calculation of Reckonable Service) Bill 2021, the aim of which was similar to that of the Bill before the House this evening, namely, to ensure workers would not lose out on time when it came to the calculation of a redundancy entitlement. The Bill before us is quite similar and it is very welcome. The Sinn Féin Bill went a bit further as it sought to clarify some workers' rights issues that had arisen. My Sinn Féin colleague, Teachta O'Reilly, tried to make amendments on Committee Stage but unfortunately they were ruled out of order. However, we will continue to support the Bill because of the importance of what it does achieve despite what it does not.

The Bill provides for a once-off redundancy payment to workers in respect of certain lay-off periods, during the period beginning on 13 March and ending at the end of September 2021. Under the Redundancy Payments Act, statutory redundancy is based on duration of service and a qualified employee is entitled to two weeks' pay per year of service, plus a bonus week, subject to a cap of €600 in earnings per week, payable by the employer. Under the existing Act, periods of lay-off in the final three years of service do not count as reckonable service, meaning that redundancy entitlements will not factor in those periods. Therefore that would result in a loss in relation to redundancy payments. Thankfully, that is addressed within the Bill. It ensures affected workers can access a tax-free State payment of up to €1,860 financed by the Social Insurance Fund to compensate for the break in their service caused by the pandemic and associated public-health restrictions.

It would be good to hear from the Minister of State at this point on whether there are more details about the operational and practical side of delivering the scheme and rolling it out. There will be people anxiously waiting to find out how and when they can apply. We want to work with the Minister of State to get this legislation over the line as efficiently and effectively as possible but it is important that the details of how the scheme will be delivered are explained for people. We do not want to see a situation where the scheme sits between two Ministers with neither really taking full responsibility, because it is not clear whether responsibility will be directly upon the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment or upon the Minister for Social Protection. Will the Minister of State clarify at this stage whether the application will be online or paper-based and how it will work in practice? The details on that would be very helpful.

I want to make a point about what the Bill does not achieve, and I want to finish by raising the issue of tactical insolvency. The Minister of State, Deputy English, was very accommodating at the Committee on Enterprise, Trade, and Employment when discussing this matter with my colleague, Teachta O'Reilly. However, I want to read into the Official Report of the Seanad the need for legislation to deal with tactical insolvencies, which have the result of destroying workers' collective redundancy entitlements. We saw it with Clerys, La Senza, Paris Bakery, TalkTalk, and Debenhams how tactical and other opaque insolvencies can ruin workers' collective redundancy entitlements and damage public finances. This legislation recognises the fact that, through no fault of their own, workers found themselves on lay-off and they should not find themselves disproportionately impacted by something that was not their fault. Likewise in the situation of a tactical insolvency, workers who have given good and loyal service find themselves in a situation whereby the company goes out of business and they are left with absolutely nothing. The majority of companies do not engage in this practice but legislation is required for those that do. They are only small in number and I would not want to portray this as a case of all workers being in danger of this happening to them. However, when it happens it is absolutely devastating. The Minister of State gave a detailed outline of where things currently stand with Government legislation to correct the lacuna in the law which is exploited by companies engaging in tactical and opaque insolvencies and I thank him for that. We all want to work together to resolve this matter, and I know the Committee on Enterprise, Trade, and Employment will be looking at it further. I hope this House, the Dáil, the committee and the Ministers can work together to ensure that what happened to the workers at Clerys, La Senza, Paris Bakery, TalkTalk, and Debenhams never happens again.