Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 86: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the cost of redundancy rebate payments and payments from the insolvency fund in 2008; the cost of redundancy rebate payments and payments from the insolvency fund to date in 2009; the estimated amount to be paid in 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12439/09]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 87: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason for the delays in processing redundancy rebates and insolvency fund payments; her Department targets for processing such claims; if she will provide a table showing the number of claims outstanding by category and the age profile of the claims in each category by the number of weeks waiting and the value of claims not yet paid for redundancy rebate payments and payments from the insolvency fund as of 13 March 2009. [12440/09]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 88: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions she has taken to allocate adequate resources to reduce the delays in processing redundancy rebates and insolvency fund payments; when the resources will be in place and the processing times reduced to her Department targets; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12441/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 to 88, inclusive, together.

Table 1, which follows, shows the expenditure figures for the year 2008 and to end February 2009 for both redundancy rebate and insolvency payments. The figures for 2009 are provisional. The Redundancy Payments and Insolvency Sections of my Department draw down funds monthly as required from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF). No estimate of future requirements therefore, can be produced in respect of expenditure. The Redundancy payments aspect of the SIF is administered by my Department on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Up until mid 2008, our customer service targets for processing correctly completed redundancy claims were, in order of priority: 4-6 weeks for statutory redundancy lump sum claims to employees whose employers failed to pay the statutory entitlement; 6 weeks where claims were correctly submitted online, hard copy printed down correctly signed and sent in by employer; 10+ weeks for manual claims sent in by employers. By and large these targets were met.

In mid-2008, there was a surge in the number of claims received in Redundancy Payments, such that by the end of the year there had been an increase of 59.9% over 2007. There has been no diminution in the number of claims received to date in 2009. There has, in fact, been a huge increase (18,000 to date — a figure only reached in July of last year) and in consequence an approximate waiting time in order of priority of 6-8+ weeks for statutory lump sum payments to employees whose employers had failed to pay the statutory entitlement; 16+ weeks for correctly submitted online claims, hard copy printed down correctly signed and sent in by employer; 20+ weeks for manual claims sent in by employers.

New insolvency claims received in February 2009 increased by 51% over the February 2008 figure. The cumulative figure for January to December 2008 at 12,028 is up 104% on the year 2007. This level of increase in insolvency has impacted on the claims processing times and on our customer service target claims processing of six to seven weeks. Processing has commenced on insolvency claims received in February.

In view of the unprecedented level of applications currently in the Redundancy Payments area for processing and the need to prioritise the deployment of resources to this activity, I regret that it is not possible to compile the statistical information which the Deputy has requested on age profile or value of claims not yet processed for redundancy rebate payments and insolvency payments from the Social Insurance Fund as at 13 March 2009.

I have re-allocated an additional nine persons to the Redundancy Payments Section since the start of the year and I have earmarked an additional 12 persons to be reassigned in the coming days and weeks. However, there is a limit to the amount of people that we can reassign internally because other areas of my Department are equally busy — for example on labour force activation issues and in the employment rights bodies (e.g. Employment Appeals Tribunal). Therefore, I am also in discussions with the Department of Finance to see what scope there is for the assignment of additional staff, possibly from other Departments, as happened in the case of the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Every effort is being made to deal with an increasing backlog in an attempt to ensure that claimants get the best possible service at, what is for them, a very difficult time.