Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 171: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if interest will be awarded in respect of the amount outstanding in relation to a redundancy refund of €44,041 due to a company (details supplied) in County Cork in view of continuing delays in dealing with this claim; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36679/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My reply to the Deputy on 7 October '09 set out the status in relation to the outstanding redundancy rebate claims for the company in question. The delay in processing the claims arises due to the unprecedented levels of redundancy claims which await processing in my Department.

Redundancy Payments are paid out of the Social Insurance Fund which is funded from contributions by Employers and Employees in active employment. Monies from the Fund go to meet social insurance payments but the Fund does not make interest payments.

Arising from concerns expressed to both the Tánaiste and myself by businesses experiencing particular difficulties in meeting tax payment obligations because of a delay in receiving rebate repayments from the Redundancy Payments Section of the Department, we have agreed an arrangement with the Revenue Commissioners to facilitate such situations. This allows employers to have the redundancy rebate payments owing to them offset against the same amount of outstanding tax liability.

In order for a company to arrange for payment of an outstanding tax liability to Revenue via their redundancy rebate payment they must request and agree this arrangement in writing with Revenue, authorizing my Department to make the company's redundancy rebate payable to Revenue. When agreement with the Office of the Revenue Commissioners is in place, Revenue contact my Department referring to the company's request, attaching a copy of such request, and instructing my Department to forward the payment directly to Revenue.

On receipt of this correspondence from Revenue, my Department follows up with the Revenue official dealing with the case informing him/her of the approximate value of claims on hand for that Company so that appropriate action can be taken in relation to the tax liability.

This arrangement is proving to be extremely useful to businesses and is being availed of in a number of situations.