Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 112: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, further to Parliamentary Question No. 95 of 17 February 2010, when payments will issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11078/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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As I indicated to the Deputy in my previous reply, my Department has received claims for the former employees of the company concerned under both the Redundancy Payments and the Insolvency Payments Schemes. The situation regarding when the claims are likely to be paid has not changed. In relation to Redundancy Payments, my Department received six statutory lump sum claims for former employees of the company over the period October/November 2009. In respect of lump sum payments paid directly to employees, such as in this instance, the Redundancy Payments Section is, in general, currently processing claims dating from August 2009. Claims are processed in order of date of receipt. I cannot confirm definite processing times for the claims in question, other than to say that the current 7 month time delay in processing lump sum claims would point to the claims being processed in May/June of this year.

In relation to the claims under the Insolvency Payments Scheme, my Department received applications from the liquidator in respect of holiday Pay for 10 former employees of this company in the period November 2009 to February 2010. The Insolvency Payments Unit is currently processing claims received in September 2009. I understand that a number of queries on these claims have been raised with the appointed Liquidator which will need to be resolved in order to process the claims. I appreciate the Deputy's interest on behalf of the persons concerned. However in relation to Insolvency Payments despite significant productivity, the backlog of claims is in excess of 5000, and efforts are being made to fill vacancies existing in the Section, and to retain experienced officers within the Unit.

In relation to Redundancy Payment claims lodged with my Department, since late 2008 it has proved impossible to maintain the customer service targets that previously obtained. The scale of the challenge is evident from the statistics that show incoming redundancy claims with a cumulative figure for 2009 of 77,001. This figure exceeds the claims lodged for 2008 (40,607) by 90% and 2008 was, of itself, an exceptional year as compared with earlier years when claims received were of the order of 25,000.

Efforts continue to be made by my Department to deliver more acceptable turnaround processing times for redundancy payments given the difficulties that this gives rise to for both individual employees and the business community. Measures already taken include:

· the reassignment of 26.7 additional staff (full time equivalents) from other areas of the Department to the Redundancy Payments area since early 2009 with ongoing review of trends and demands. The current number of staff serving in the Redundancy Payments Section in terms of full time equivalents is 52.5;

· the prioritisation of the Department's overtime budget towards staff in the Redundancy Payments Section to tackle the backlog outside normal hours;

· the establishment of a special call handling facility to deal with the huge volume of telephone calls from people and businesses who are naturally concerned about their payments, using the facilities and cooperation of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA). This centre has received an average of 12,500 calls per month this year with an estimated 60% relating to redundancy payments;

· The provision of better quality information relating to current processing times on the Department's website;

· Engagement with the Revenue Commissioners to facilitate the offset of redundancy rebate payments by employers against outstanding tax liabilities with the Revenue Commissioners.

The Tánaiste and I continue to monitor closely the impact of these changes against the continuing influx of redundancy claims and we are currently looking at ways in which additional resources can be allocated to the area in the first quarter of 2010.