Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 202: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the cost to the State of increasing redundancy payments to four weeks of pay per year of service. [18699/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The total cost to the Social Insurance Fund of providing for statutory redundancy payments for the first three months of 2006 was €36.1m. Of this, expenditure on employer rebates of 60% where the employers paid eligible employees their correct statutory redundancy lump sum entitlements amounted to €34.2m. Expenditure arising from direct payments by the Department from the Fund to employees who were not paid their statutory redundancy amounted to €1.9m.

From these most recent figures, which were based on statutory redundancy payments of two weeks pay for every year of service (together with the usual bonus week), it can be estimated that the current total cost of redundancy payments for the full year will amount to €143.2m with €136.7m in respect of employer rebates and €7.5m in respect of direct payments to the employees. The cost of statutory redundancy based on four weeks pay per year of service can be further extrapolated from these figures. Thus, the total cost for the year would amount to €288.5 with €273.5m for employer rebates and €15.0m for direct payments to employees.

Redundancy entitlements were last discussed in the context of Sustaining Progress and agreed at two weeks pay per year of service plus a bonus week. There are no plans at present to increase statutory redundancy entitlements.