Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 86: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the waiting period for rebate of 60% of statutory redundancy for employers at present; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13570/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The huge increase in the number of Redundancy Payment claims lodged with the Redundancy Payments Section of my Department in the latter part of 2008 and, to date in 2009 is unprecedented and is giving rise to delays in the processing of redundancy payments for individuals and companies within a reasonable timeframe. The scale of the challenge is evident from the statistics which indicate that, at the end of the first quarter of 2009, the number of new claims lodged with my Department was 19,742 which equates to almost 50% of the entire level of applications lodged for the whole of 2008 i.e. 40, 607. It is also equivalent to 78% of applications lodged for the whole of 2007. The number of claims received is averaging 1,600 per week.

Because of the huge surge in claims received in Redundancy Payments in 2008, customer service targets have slipped as existing staff levels are insufficient to cope with such a massive increase in claim numbers. Actual timeframes being achieved are, in order of priority:

6-8+ weeks for statutory lump sum payments to employees whose employers had failed to pay the statutory entitlement;

12+ weeks for correctly submitted online claims, hard copy printed down correctly signed and sent in by employer;

16+ weeks for manual claims sent in by employers.

We are acutely aware of the difficulties which the inability to deliver an acceptable turnaround of redundancy rebate payments is giving rise to for both individual employees and the business community and together, we are taking all possible steps to address the issues.