Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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2. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to an anomaly (details supplied) in respect of redundancy calculations for persons that were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment; and the steps that he has taken or will take to address these matters. [59585/21]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Where an employee is laid off for periods during their last three years of employment, those periods do not constitute reckonable service for the purposes of redundancy calculations. In light of the extensive periods of lay-off some people will have experienced during the pandemic emergency period, this may have a significant impact on their redundancy entitlement if they are made redundant within the next three years.

Accordingly, on 27th October, Government approved the drafting of a Bill to enable an exceptional additional payment to be made from the Social Insurance Fund to employees who were laid off as a result of pandemic-related restrictions and are subsequently made redundant. The General Scheme of the Bill underwent pre-legislative scrutiny on the first of December, and the Bill will be advanced as soon as possible thereafter. 

The Department of Social Protection is working on the necessary administrative systems to provide for the application and payment processes, and is liaising closely with my officials.