Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of redundancies reported to her Department for each of the past six months; a breakdown by sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44913/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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In parallel with the general downturn in the economy, the number of redundancies reported to my Department to date in 2009 is unprecedented when compared with earlier years. Up to and including 2007, the average annual intake of redundancy claims was 25,000. In the latter part of 2008, an increased influx of claims was in evidence with in excess of 40,000 claims received in that year. Up to the end of October 2009, the intake of claims stood at 67,207 and by the end of the year, it is expected that the annual intake for 2009 could be of the order of 75,000 which would represent a threefold increase compared with the level of claims received up to and including 2007.

It is important to note that these figures are indicative of the number of employees on whose behalf claims were submitted for statutory redundancy lump sum payments. They do not reflect those who lost their jobs with less than two years service in an employment. Nor do the figures record levels of employment or unemployment which are measured by the Quarterly National Household Survey, collated and published by the Central Statistics Office.

In response to the Deputy's specific question, the number of redundancies reported to my Department for each of the past six months (May to October 2009) amounts in total to 39,518 ranging from 7,971 in May 2009 to 6,561 in October 2009. A detailed breakdown of the claims by sector is provided in tabular form in a table attached. The categories in which the highest claims occur are within those classified as Other Services, Building and Civil Engineering and Other Manufacturing. The category Other Services comprises a range of sectors and would include retail, hospitality, restaurants and a variety of other service sectors not separately categorised. This category constitutes the highest number of claims with a total of 13,782 for the six-month reference period. This is followed by Building & Civil Engineering with a total of 8,707 claims and, by Other Manufacturing with a total of 7,617 claims.

Overall, the figures captured in the tabular statement do not indicate a particular trend in the level of claims given that in the reference period, claims peaked in May 2009 and, although they reduced considerably in the June/July/August period, claims increased again in September and October. Thus, it is not possible to conclude that there is any levelling off in the number of claims received. On average the number of claims received monthly in 2009 is 6,000.

Table 1

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Actual Redundancies received by Industrial Sector under the Redundancy Scheme during May 2009 to Oct 2009