Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation if he will expedite the redundancy payment in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Clare; when payment will be made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25329/10]

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. There are two types of payment made from the SIF – rebates to those employers who have paid statutory redundancy to eligible employees, and statutory lump sums to employees whose employers are insolvent and/or in receivership/liquidation.

I can confirm that my Department received a statutory lump sum claim for the individual concerned on 28 May, 2010 claiming inability to pay on behalf of the employer. 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 also from October 2009.

In relation to Redundancy claims, the scale of the challenge is evident from the statistics that show incoming redundancy claims in 2009 amounted to 77,001 which represents a threefold increase over the level of claims lodged in 2007 and earlier years. In 2007, 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 in the Department in 2009 to alleviate the pressures on the Payments area include:

· almost doubling the number of staff through reassignment to a current level of 52 full time equivalents;

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

· establishment of a special call handling facility in NERA to deal with the huge volume of telephone calls from people and businesses concerned about their payments.

· 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 existing outstanding tax liabilities which those employers owe to the Revenue Commissioners.

The backlog and waiting times remain at unacceptable levels. However, improvements are evident. I should point out that my Department has, in 2009, processed 50,664 claims, up 70% on 2008. In the period 1 January 2010 to 31 May 2010 new claims amounted to 28,587 - a fall off of almost 20% on the corresponding 5 month period in 2009 when 35,559 new claims were lodged. The reduction in incoming claims is most welcome and while inroads are being made in the backlog of claims, it remains at an unsustainably high level – reducing from 42,591 in December 2009 to a current level of 34,881 at end May 2010. In the first five months 34,036 claims were processed, up 130% on the same period last year.

Responsibility for the payment functions arising under the Redundancy and Insolvency payment schemes is due to be transferred to the Department of Social Protection with effect from 1 January 2011. In transferring the functions between Departments, it is the intention that this will operate seamlessly and without any adverse impact on the service levels being experienced by individuals or the business community awaiting payment of redundancy claims.