Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount of money owed to her Department in refunds for redundancy payments; the way debtors are being pursued; the criteria used to write-off the debts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33155/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 103: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount owed to her Department in refunds for redundancy payments that has been written off in the past three years; if she will list the amount written off and the name of the debtor; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33154/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 101 and 103 together.

The total amount outstanding to the SIF in respect of all cases at year end 2007 was €37.7m. In the past three years, an amount of €4.45m relating to 132 individual company debts due to the SIF in respect of statutory redundancy payments made by my Department to employees whose employers were not in a position to make those statutory payments, has been written off as irrecoverable.

The criteria engaged to write off such monies are cases in which liquidations have been completed and final statement of accounts were received and/or cases where the companies concerned have been struck off the Register of Companies. Equally, write-offs were concluded in cases in which receiverships were completed and the Receiver had disposed of all assets of the company, and final Receiver Receipts and Payments Accounts were produced. In both instances, confirmation would have been received that either the companies had been dissolved and struck off the Register of Companies for at least two years or that companies struck off the Register were not pending reinstatement. In these situations there is no legal entity to pursue to recover outstanding debt.

Apart from liquidations and receiverships, debt arises from defaulting employers whose enterprises, while they may be experiencing financial difficulties, do not undertake formal liquidation or receivership processes. In all cases of outstanding debt regardless of the source, liability letters seeking repayment of the outstanding debt are issued and debts are recovered on foot of these letters. Follow up to the initial liability letters by issuing regular reminders is also being pursued. As there is no time limit on liquidations, it often takes a number of years to recover any liability from the administrator of a liquidated company, but reminders of the preferential creditor status of the Minister are regularly issued. It is not the practice of my Department to release information on redundancy/insolvency matters in respect of individuals or companies.