Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 220: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will receive their redundancy rebate payment in view of the fact that the delay is causing hardship. [34173/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Redundancy Section of my Department has on record a notification of redundancy (RP 50) which was received on-line (electronically) on the 14th of July, 2009 from the company concerned. Claims submitted online because of their nature tend to have a faster processing time compared to applications by post and I would urge all future applicants to avail of the on-line Redundancy Payments facility of my Department. All claims are processed strictly in order of date of receipt in fairness to all claimants.

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.

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.