Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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1143. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to provide funds in order to ensure that employees made redundant by a company (details supplied) will receive enhanced redundancy terms as per a Labour Court recommendation. [45911/17]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Local Development Companies that deliver the LEADER programme are private not for profit companies/non-public organisations. My Department has no role in the internal operations of those companies and likewise has no role in relation to staff or employment matters. These are matters for the Board of each company, as the employer, to manage. It should also be noted that my Department was not a party in the matter referred to by the Deputy.

Nonetheless, I understand that the former Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs contributed to the cost of redundancies that arose in the company referred to by the Deputy and in other Local Development Companies as part of the transition to the new LEADER 2014-2020 Programme. This contribution was towards the statutory minimum rate based on the time each employee spent working on the LEADER Programme. The contribution made to the relevant staff in the company referred to was in line with the contributions made by that Department in respect of LEADER-related redundancies which arose in other Local Development Companies as part of the transition to the new LEADER programme.

Provision of enhanced redundancy terms to employees is a matter for the Local Development Companies themselves, as employers.