Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Question 468: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the restrictions on an employer who has implemented collective redundancy and received a two thirds rebate on the cost of redundancy, with regard to the employment of new staff to do the same or similar work; the monitoring or enforcement carried out to ensure that the legislation is complied with; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34293/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It is the policy of Government to pay a rebate only in situations where the strict criteria stipulating genuine grounds for redundancy under Section 7 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, as amended by Section 4 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1971 and Section 5 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 2003, are applicable.

Statutory Redundancy Rebates are paid to employers who qualify under the provisions of the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2003 out of the Social Insurance Fund. Employers pay contributions to the SIF in respect of redundancy through the PRSI system.

If an employer has had statutory redundancies and his business picks up (i.e. if he gets in a new order) at a later date, he is entitled to employ people as his requirements demand. He may re-employ those that he previously made redundant (it would be a new employment for them) or he can employ others to carry out the work. There is no specific time span that must elapse before he employs more people. The demands of the employment dictate when he can take on more staff.

As a result of the recent Social Partnership Agreement 'Towards 2016', a proposal has emerged which is designed to address exceptional cases of compulsory collective redundancy.

Under this proposal, a new body to be known as the Redundancy Panel will be established through an amendment to the Protection of Employment Act 1977. The only function of this Redundancy Panel, having been requested either by employee representatives or the employer and having invited submissions from both parties, would be to request the Minister to ask the Labour Court to issue an opinion as to whether or not the proposed dismissals involve a collective redundancy proposal, on a compulsory basis with the planned replacement of staff by direct employees employed by the employer effecting the compulsory collective redundancy, or the use of replacement workers by the employer. The establishment of the new body will be provided for in new legislation due to be published in the coming months.