John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if, in view of the ongoing Irish Ferries dispute, the practice of disemploying existing workers to replace them with lower paid, agency-employed workers qualifies the workers for statutory redundancy payments. [31595/05]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Statutory redundancy payments are the responsibility of the employer in the first instance, and should be paid in accordance with the relevant legislation.

The Redundancy Payments Act 1967, as amended by the 1971 Act, contains the definition of redundancy in section 7(2). This definition has withstood the test of time. The redundancy payments scheme was examined by the redundancy review group in 2002. The review group consisted of representatives of the social partners and Government Departments. The review group agreed several changes to the redundancy payments scheme which were implemented in the Redundancy Payments Act 2003. However, the group saw no reason to change the statutory definition of redundancy.

As my Department has not received any communication from Irish Ferries regarding the proposed redundancies, which were announced to the media on 19 September 2005, it is not in a position to give a definitive opinion on whether or not redundancies at this company, should they occur, fall within the provisions of the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2003. Based on media reportage of the proposed redundancies I sought and obtained preliminary advice from the Attorney General's office which is to the effect that redundancies as proposed by the company may not fall within the definition of the legislation. However, clarity can only be established if and when the company makes a formal application to the Department for a statutory redundancy rebate. The company and the unions are involved with the State's industrial relations machinery in attempts to seek a solution to the issues involved.