Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 19: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of redundancies notified to his Department during 2007; the way this compares with the same period in each year from 2002 to 2006; his views on the reported increase in the number of redundancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4059/08]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The numbers of actual redundancies notified to my Department for the years 2002-2007 are as follows:

These figures show the number of employees on whose behalf claims were submitted for statutory redundancy lump sum payments. They do not reflect those who lost their jobs with less than two years service in an employment.

I have no control over the number of redundancies that occur at any given time.

My Department carried out an analysis last year in which the average annual level of redundancies for the period 2002-2006 was compared with the level of redundancies in the period 1995-2001. It was found that the level of redundancy had almost doubled and the cause may be attributed to two factors. Firstly, there were more people at work in the more recent period; this accounted for 20% of the increase in the level of redundancies.Secondly, the risk of redundancy increased significantly in the second period and this accounted for 80% of the increase in the level of redundancy.