Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason a person (details supplied) received such a small amount of redundancy payment after 30 years of service; and if he has recourse to an appeal; if the rules for calculating redundancy have changed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12570/04]

Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The person concerned received his full statutory redundancy entitlements on being made redundant on 5 August 2002. The calculation was based on his age, length of service in employment and gross weekly wage at the time he was declared redundant — the date on which notice was given, which in this case was 19 July 2002. When the man in question was made redundant, the statutory entitlement was half a week's pay for each year of service under the age of 41 years and a full week's pay for each year of service over the age of 41 years, plus one extra week's pay. New rates of statutory redundancy came into effect on 25 May 2003 with the enactment of the new Redundancy Payments Act 2003. Under the new Act, an employee, declared redundant on or after 25 May 2003, is entitled to statutory redundancy of two weeks pay per year of service, regardless of age, plus one extra week's pay at the gross rate of pay, up to the ceiling of €507.90 per week.

Under the Redundancy Payments Act 2003, retrospection was not possible, even in limited circumstances, because the redundancy scheme places obligations on employers and confers rights on employees. The legal advice of the Office of the Attorney General is that because the payment of a statutory lump sum is a legal requirement on the employers, it could not be imposed on them with retrospective effect. Employers are entitled to due notice of intention to legally require them to pay enhanced rates. It is regretted that workers made redundant prior to 25 May 2003, have not been able to benefit from the increased redundancy payments. The legal position cannot be changed, however, and special legislative provisions cannot be made for redundant employees who missed out on the new rates.