Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 100: To ask the Minister for Finance further to the ongoing refusal of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, to release funds to pay the former employees of a company (details supplied), the contact there has been between him and NAMA and, in particular, the dedicated unit within his Department which liaises on a daily basis with NAMA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1058/12]

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will make inquiries into any possible role he can play in facilitating a resolution of the dispute between the former employees of a company (details supplied), their employer and the National Asset Management Agency; if he will consider intervening in this matter to assist the former employees who are the innocent victims in this dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1059/12]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will ensure that a forensic examination of the accounts of a group of companies (details supplied) is carried out to ensure that workers are paid the redundancy payments to which they are entitled and to ensure that money or assets were not moved between legally separate companies within the group to frustrate the creditors of the company including the 32 workers who have been made redundant. [1308/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 100, 101 and 115 together.

Every reasonable person sympathises with the employees arising from the failure of the company concerned and its shareholders to pay them their redundancy payments. While NAMA fully appreciates how difficult the situation is for the people who have lost their jobs, it advises me that it has no loans or relationship with the company which has failed to make the redundancy payments.

NAMA informs me that it was asked by the main shareholder to release funds from an unconnected company in which he is a shareholder. These funds are security for loans which a participating institution had lent to that company prior to NAMA being established and which later were transferred to NAMA. I am informed that the Agency carefully examined the request to release the funds. NAMA advises me that there is no legal basis for it using assets belonging to one company to make payments to another unrelated company with which it has no financial relationship, and that the sum of money which is the security for the loan must be used to help pay down that company's debt to the Irish taxpayer through NAMA. It would be inappropriate for me or my officials to attempt to interfere with the commercial decisions taken by the Board.

With regard to redundancy payments, it is the responsibility of an employer to pay statutory redundancy to all their eligible employees. An employer who pays statutory redundancy payments to their employees is then entitled to a rebate from the State of a percentage of the relevant amount. Responsibility for the processing of claims under the Redundancy Payments Scheme rests with the Department of Social Protection. Where an employer can prove to the satisfaction of the Department of Social Protection that they are unable to pay the statutory redundancy to their employees, the Department will make lump sum payments directly to the employees and will seek to recover the debt from the employer. To prove inability to pay the employer must submit documentary evidence to confirm that this is the position. It is therefore a matter for the Department of Social Protection to satisfy itself that this arises and that there are insufficient funds within that company to make redundancy payments.

Finally, with regard to the request for a forensic examination of the group of companies, NAMA informs me that there is no legal basis for the Agency to carry out any analysis of the accounts of a company with which it has no formal relationship.