Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 13: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason for the delay in paying redundancy rebate to a company (details supplied). [14105/09]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 28: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when a refund of redundancy payments will be made in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14715/09]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 28 together.

I can confirm that the Redundancy Payments Section of my Department has received a number of applications from the company concerned. Owing to a very significant influx in the number of redundancy applications filed with the Department in the latter part of 2008 and, to date in 2009, there is a considerable backlog of applications waiting to be processed in the Section. I am conscious that many employers who have paid the due entitlements to workers are genuinely waiting on rebates for cash flow purposes and my Department is trying to process these claims as quickly as possible in the circumstances. I have taken a number of measures, including the provision of additional staff resources in the Redundancy Payments Section, to deal with the increased workload and I expect that given some time, these measures will assist in making significant inroads into the backlog of applications.

As it stands, the Section is currently processing applications for rebate payments submitted online by employers dating from very early November 2008. I understand that, in the case of the company referred to, there are a number of applications filed spanning the period from early November 2008 and into the early months of 2009. I expect that the applications in question will be examined very shortly given that the Section is currently processing applications filed since early November 2008.