Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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888. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to clarify the status of the closure of a company (details supplied) and in particular the reason the parent company appears to absolve itself from its responsibility to make redundancy payments to the workforce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22596/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The former Suir Pharma facility is currently in liquidation, and Grant Thornton, as liquidators, are responsible for the site until that process is concluded. The position is that when a company goes into liquidation, the liquidator takes the place of the employer for the purposes of administering redundancy payments. Payments are made from the Social Insurance Fund, which is mostly funded from employee and employer PRSI contributions. I understand that the Department of Social Protection is currently processing payments for workers who have been made redundant from the company. The Minister for Social Protection becomes a preferential creditor to the liquidation in respect of these payments.

My focus and that of the IDA is on finding a new potential investor for this premises and creating new employment opportunities for the Suir Pharma employees. IDA Ireland is fully engaging with the liquidator in relation to pursuing new investment opportunities for this site.