John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 54: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his views on the situation whereby refunds of redundance money is paid to employers even when an employee is made redundant but takes up a new job within the same company; if he has quantified the cost of refunds paid in such situations this year or any year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19249/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department administers the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) in relation to redundancy matters on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Under Redundancy legislation, all eligible employees are entitled to a statutory redundancy lump sum payment on being made redundant. As a general rule, a redundancy situation exists where an employer requires fewer employees to do work of a particular kind, where a company goes into liquidation/receivership, where it is decided to rationalise/reorganise a company or, of course, where a company closes down. Other examples would include partial closing down of a company, a decrease in an employer's requirements for workers of a particular kind and skills/qualifications or, an employer's requirements for fewer employees due to prevailing economic conditions.

Entitlement to statutory redundancy payments are governed by the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967-2007. In particular, Sections 7 to 9 of the Act set out the circumstances in which a redundancy situation applies. Section 9 specifically provides that dismissal by way of redundancy applies in the circumstance that the contract of employment is terminated. It provides moreover that an employee is not considered to be dismissed by his employer if the contract of employment is renewed, or he is re-engaged by the same employer under a new contract of employment where the conditions of employment do not differ from those of the previous contract and the contract takes effect immediately on the ending of the previous employment contract or, where renewal or re-engagement is offered within a period of four weeks from the ending of the previous contract.

In any instance where my Department is unsure, on the basis of claims made, whether a genuine redundancy situation exists, my Department will pursue this with the employer concerned. My Department also has the option, if there is any element of doubt relating to the existence of a redundancy situation, of referring cases to the Employment Appeals Tribunal for a decision. My Department is not aware of any cases in which statutory redundancy was paid out this year or any year where the redundancies were not of a genuine nature.