Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 128: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will report on the position regarding statutory redundancy payments; if there are delays in issuing payments to employers under this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20036/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The economic downturn has seen a huge acceleration in the number of companies forced to take measures to cut staff costs including that of making staff redundant. This in turn has placed unprecedented demands on the Redundancy Payment Section of the Department in that, in the first four months of 2009 alone, the number of new claims lodged exceeds the equivalent of that lodged for the full year 2007 i.e. 27,983 new claims lodged in the period to end April as against 25,459 for the whole of 2007. The number of claims received is averaging 1,600 per week.

I am 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 am taking steps to address the issues. Since the start of 2009, I have allocated 19 new staff members to the Redundancy Payments Section of my Department. In addition, I have made arrangements that the information centre of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) will take all redundancy-specific calls to enable the staff in the Redundancy Payments Unit to concentrate on and prioritise the processing of redundancy payment claims.

Currently the Redundancy Payments Section of my Department is dealing with rebate claims submitted on-line in December 2008 and those submitted manually in November 2008. Correctly completed lump sums applications received together with the required supporting documentation i.e audited accounts, current statement of affairs and confirmation from the company accountant that the company is insolvent are being processed within six-eight weeks of receipt.

I can assure the Deputy that this matter is under constant review in my Department and that 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.