Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 149: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will ensure that employers are reimbursed the 60% rebate of statutory redundancy payments to which they are entitled within the timeframe set out on her Department website; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15234/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.

While measures are being taken to address the backlog of claims applications, including the allocation of additional staff resources to the area, the volume of work on hand is such that very significant slippage has occurred in the timeframes for processing redundancy claims as against the targets which the Department originally set itself. The Department's website at www.entemp.ie which is updated regularly, gives information on the month from which claims are being processed. Currently, the Redundancy Payments Section is finalising on-line rebate claims to employers received in November 2008 and manual claims for October 2008. Every effort is being made to deal with the backlog of claims and to improve the turnaround time for processing claims.