Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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186. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a redundancy repayment request in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; the reason this money has been requested at this juncture; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23285/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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A redundancy payment made to the person concerned was disputed by his former employer. The person concerned acknowledged that his entitlement to a redundancy payment was under dispute and informed this Department that he had lodged an appeal with the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) for adjudication. He subsequently withdrew his appeal.

As the matter was under dispute and the EAT appeal was withdrawn, a debt was raised in respect of the redundancy payment and this was notified to the person concerned and recovery sought.

Following correspondence in relation to the recovery of the debt the person concerned was informed by my Department that if he wished to establish his entitlement to the redundancy payment he should resubmit his appeal to the EAT. He has not done so and therefore my Department is seeking to recover the amount paid in redundancy to him.

Effective debt recovery is a key aspect of my Department’s control policy and periodic case reviews are undertaken. In this instance, a review was undertaken in May, 2015 and it was noted that no money had been repaid on this debt. The person concerned was issued with a debt statement reminder and offered the opportunity to enter into a debt recovery plan.

To date no debt repayment arrangement has been agreed.