Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 185: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will respond to a query regarding the case of a person (details supplied) in County Dublin. [33110/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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It is not clear from the Deputy's question the nature of the query which is with my Department.

My Department administers the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) in relation to Redundancy payments on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. In respect of Redundancy, there are two types of payment made from the SIF — rebates to those employers who have paid statutory redundancy to eligible employees, and statutory lump sums to employees whose employers are insolvent and/or in receivership/liquidation and are unable to pay.

I am advised by my Department that there are no records in existence of a claim for redundancy payment in respect of the individual in question.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 186: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of employers in County Mayo waiting for their employers redundancy rebate; the length of time each application is taking to process in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33127/09]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 187: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies in each county waiting for their employers redundancy rebate and the length of time each application is taking to process in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33128/09]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 189: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of businesses in Cork City and County waiting on redundancy payments from her Department; the length of time they have been waiting; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33182/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos.186, 187 and 189 together.

The Redundancy Payments Section of my Department is in receipt of an unprecedented level of claims for redundancy payment that are giving rise to very significant delays in the processing of those payments for both companies and individuals. Currently, the average time it takes to process rebate applications from employers filed online is 7 months while claims submitted by post are taking 8 months. The Department is currently processing rebate claims submitted online from March '09 and claims filed manually from February '09.

To put it in perspective, at end September 2009, the number of Redundancy claims paid by my Department relating to applications received in 2009 and earlier years, amounted to 32,127. This equates to payments of around €206.5 million, both to employers and, in some cases, directly to employees. This means the Department is issuing an average of around €5.7 million per week in redundancy payments. The backlog of applications awaiting payment at end September '09 stands at 43,250. Of this total, an estimated 10,500 claims are the subject of requests for further information.

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide the Deputy with the specific information he has requested as the Department does not collate those statistics on a county basis. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that at this time, my focus and that of my Department is on ensuring that the redundancy payments are expedited as quickly as possible.

Naturally, the Tánaiste and I share concerns about current processing times which individuals and employers continue to experience and further initiatives, including that of additional resourcing measures, have been implemented in order to improve the turnaround in the processing of redundancy payments.