Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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21. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he plans to seek an extension to the redundancy moratorium set to end on 31 March 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5527/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Section 12A of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 is the emergency provision which suspends an employee’s entitlement to claim redundancy from their employer, following certain periods of lay-off or short time work due to Covid-19, for the duration of the emergency period.

The decision to extend this suspension to 31st March 2021 was a difficult one to make and was disappointing for those employees who are experiencing uncertainty. But in making this decision the Government was conscious that Quarter 1 of 2021 will be particularly difficult for many employers with ongoing closures and restrictions and we had to consider the need to ensure businesses survive and that permanent job losses and insolvency situations are avoided as much as possible.

It was also considered that an extension of the end-date was important for employees to ensure that they have a continued link to their job and a pathway to return. The Pandemic Unemployment Payment will remain open until the end of March 2021 in order to support affected employees as will the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme.

A decision on a further extension of Section 12A has not been made at this stage. In the deliberations on a further extension, regard will be had to the criteria and principles underpinning the emergency provision, the public health and labour market situations and the views of the social partners.

All other redundancy provisions remain unchanged and in force. If an employer is making employees redundant, protections such as notice periods for redundancy and the payment of a redundancy lump-sum to the affected employees still apply and the existing range of employment rights legislation remains in place.