Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 130: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons that have applied for redundancy payments for each year between 2005 and 2009 in tabular form; the number that received redundancy payments between the years 2005 and 2009; the number that were advised to take a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal due to the fact that their employer had not provided adequate information to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12419/10]

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 131: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the amount that has been paid out in redundancy payments for each year between 2005 and 2009 in tabular form; the amount that has been reimbursed to employers who have paid redundancy to employees and who are seeking to recover 60% from her Department for each year between 2005 and 2009; the amount that has been paid out directly to employees of companies who have not been able to pay them directly for each year 2005 to 2009; the amount that has been recovered by her Department from such companies for each year 2005 to 2009; the amount that her Department is seeking to recover from companies where it paid redundancy to employees; the amount that her Department is seeking to recover some or all of that from the company for each year 2005 to 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12420/10]

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of companies which have claimed an inability to pay redundancy for each year between 2005 and 2009 in tabular form; the number of employees that were affected for each year 2005 to 2009; the number of these companies which failed to provide sufficient information to her Department to allow their employees to be paid redundancy each year 2005 to 2009; the number of employees that were denied redundancy or asked to take a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal as a result of such failures by their employers each year 2005 to 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12421/10]

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 133: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the timeframe employees seeking redundancy from her Department but were asked to take a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal are waiting for their cases to be heard by the Employment Appeals Tribunal; the timeframe they are waiting for redundancy payments from the date of application for each year 2005 to 2009; if she has reviewed this problem in view of the fact that such employees are being penalised for the actions of their employers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12422/10]

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps she takes to recover money from an employer, when that employer has refused to pay redundancy, but has been unable to prove that they are unable to pay redundancy and when the employees involved have secured a decision from the Employment Appeals Tribunal that they are entitled to redundancy and this has been paid by her Department; the number of employers that fall into this category; the amount that her Department is seeking to recover from such employers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12423/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 130 to 134, inclusive, together.

I must advise the Deputy that the level of information requested in the questions is extremely detailed and would consume considerable resources within what is currently a very busy area of my Department to provide the information requested. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that the main focus of the Redundancy Payments Section currently is to dispatch redundancy payment claims to individuals and businesses as quickly as possible.

Under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 - 2007, the objective is to ensure that statutory redundancy payments, due to eligible employees on being made redundant, are made in accordance with the legislative provisions. The legislation places the onus, in the first instance, on the employer to discharge the obligation to pay redundancy entitlement to employees. In so doing, the employer is entitled, by virtue of pay related social contributions made to the State, to recover a 60% rebate on the amount paid out in redundancy payments to employees.

In the case of liquidations/receiverships/examinerships and in cases of informal insolvency where the employer provides proof of inability to pay the redundancy entitlements to employees, the Department pays the redundancy lump sums directly to the employees from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) and then seeks to recover 40% of the amount paid out as this is the company's share of the liability of the employees' statutory payment.

In circumstances where proof of inability to pay on the part of the employer is not provided, or the employer refuses to pay the redundancy lump sum payments to employees, it is the case that the Department refers those employees to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) to obtain a determination of their right and entitlement to a redundancy lump sum. Where a positive determination is obtained from the EAT, this enables the Department to pay the employees directly from the SIF and the Department then endeavours to recover from the employer the amount paid out from the Fund – 40% in the case of employers where proof of inability to pay could not be provided and, in the case of employers who refused to pay the redundancy entitlements in the first instance, the Department seeks to recover to the SIF 100% of the amount paid out.

Under Section 43 of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (as amended) amounts owing to the Fund are recoverable as debts due to the State and, without prejudice to any other remedy, may be recovered by the Minister as a debt under statute in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Minister's claim has preferential status under Section 42 of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (as amended).

The Department does not collate information regarding the number of cases in which it has advised employees to have recourse to the EAT owing to either insufficient proof of inability to pay on the part of the employer or, refusal by the employer to pay the entitlements of employees.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal is an independent, quasi-judicial body under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It deals with claims under 18 different pieces of legislation. I am informed that it is not currently possible to disaggregate the numbers of claims received under the different pieces of legislation - it is possible to disaggregate once the claims are dealt with. Overall, the numbers of claims to the Tribunal have shown a marked increase in the last two years in particular, from 3,173 in 2007 to 5,457 in 2008, and rising to 9,458 in 2009.

The degree of increase in the numbers of claims received has naturally placed considerable pressure on case processing timeframes before the EAT. However, a number of steps have been taken to relieve this pressure. These include increasing the allocation of administrative resources to the Tribunal in the past two years, increasing the numbers of sittings per day, to a total of 924 in 2007, 1,304 in 2008, up to a total of 1,437 in 2009.

Efficiencies introduced in the Tribunal have increased the rate of throughput of claims from 2,807 in 2007 to 4,007 in 2008 and rising to 4,680 in 2009. Included in these figures are claims dealt with under the Redundancy Payments Acts as follows:

2007 - 546

2008 - 1038

2009 - 1420.

In addition, I have increased the pool of people available to sit on Tribunal Hearings by 9. Work is underway in relation to the IT system operated by the Tribunal in order to upgrade it and consideration is being given to the possible installation of a new IT system. The situation in the Tribunal is under constant review and further action will be taken as necessary within the constraints that exist in relation to resources.

The Redundancy Payments Section of my Department is currently processing rebate applications submitted by post from June 2009 and those filed online from August 2009, so that the waiting time is approximately 6 to 8 months depending on the manner of filing the application. In respect of lump sum payments paid directly to employees in instances where employers are unable to pay the statutory redundancy entitlements, the Section is, in general, processing claims dating from August 2009. For the years 2005 to early 2008 the Department's target for processing claims was 6 weeks for online claims and 10 weeks for manual claims submitted by post. Since then the processing times have extended continually due to the influx of redundancy claims resulting from the economic downturn.

My Department has, in 2009, processed 50,664 claims, up 70% on 2008, and made corresponding payments totalling €336m which results in average weekly payments to the value of €6.5m being issued. In the period 2007 – 2009, the level of new claims lodged with my Department has increased cumulatively by 200%. This contrasts with the previous two-year period 2005 – 2007 in which period the increase in new claims lodged was just 10%.

Efforts have been made by the Tánaiste and myself 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 are monitoring closely the impact of these changes against the continuing influx of redundancy claims and it is clear that additional measures are required to help reduce the backlog of claims which currently stands in excess of 39,000. The Department is currently actively engaged in efforts to secure up to 16 additional staff resources deployed to the area in the first half of 2010.

Table 1 sets out the number of statutory redundancy applications received for the years 2005 to 2009.

Tables 2 and 3 set out the total amount paid by the Department out of the Social Insurance Fund in respect of redundancy claims for the years 2005 - 2009.

In the years 2005 to 2009, the Department has been successful in recovering to the Social Insurance Fund amounts of €2.2m, €0.4m, €0.7m, €0.9m and, €3.6m respectively as shown in Table 4.

The cumulative debt outstanding which the Department is seeking to recover to the Social Insurance Fund as it stood at each year end is €24.9m, €31.1m, €37.7m, €48.5m and €78.7m respectively as shown in Table 5. Table 1: Actual Statutory Redundancies for years 2005 to 2009

Table 2: Expenditure from the SIF on Statutory Redundancies for years 2005 to 2009

Table 3: Redundancy Payments made from the Social Insurance Fund (€) including breakdown of lump sum payments made

Please note that rows 2 and 3 (lump sum 60% and lump sum 40%) of Table 3 split out the amount of the payments made in respect of employees in situations of liquidation or receivership or companies in informal insolvency. To find the total amount paid out the figures in both rows for each year should be aggregated and the amount which the Department seeks to recover is the 40% amount on row 3.

Table 4: Recoveries in Respect of Redundancy Payments (€)

Note the amounts recovered in each year relates to monies recovered for the current year and earlier years.

Table 5: Amounts Outstanding due to SIF in respect of Redundancy Payments (€)

All figures are cumulative figures

Please note that figures for both 2008 and 2009 in tables 2, 3, 4 and 5 are *provisional figures.