Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Firstly, I extend my sympathies to the former workers of the company concerned who have been made redundant. I fully appreciate how difficult the situation is for those involved and for their families.

I also recognise that the workers involved are a vulnerable cohort of the workforce. At the time of the announced job losses in Limerick, at a local level dedicated staff in the Department of Social Protection were assigned to work directly with the employees affected by redundancy, to ensure they received their proper entitlements and any other services that were available to them.

Officials also held group information sessions and one-to-one phone meetings with the workers involved. They advised the workers on supports for jobseekers with disabilities, including the EmployAbility service which is an employment and recruitment service that helps people who have a disability to secure and maintain employment.

This action ensured employees were able to access their entitlements swiftly and in a manner that hopefully did not cause any further distress.

By law, it is the employer’s responsibility to pay statutory redundancy to eligible workers. In situations where an employer is genuinely unable to pay statutory redundancy entitlements due to financial difficulties or insolvency, the State provides a safety net and may make the statutory redundancy payments on the employer’s behalf from the Social Insurance Fund.

However, negotiations on enhanced redundancy packages over and above the statutory entitlement are entirely a voluntary matter between employers and workers. The State has no role in this matter.

For its part, the State provides the industrial relations dispute settlement mechanisms, that is, the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court, to support parties in their efforts to resolve their differences. However, I must emphasise that Ireland’s system of industrial relations is essentially voluntary in nature. The responsibility for the resolution of industrial disputes between employers and workers rests in the first instance with the employer, the workers and their representatives.

I understand the workers and their families are disappointed that this issue is not yet resolved, but as Minister I cannot intervene in this matter. This is because the WRC and the Labour Court are independent offices of my Department. Recommendations arising from the WRC and the Labour Court are not legally binding. The State cannot compel a party to comply with a Labour Court Recommendation. I understand the most recent hearing in the Labour Court on the matter was in November.

I want to emphasise that I strongly encourage parties to engage in the industrial relations process in a constructive manner and to comply with any recommendations arising from this process. All parties should respect the arms of the State and the industrial relations machinery, which works extremely well and effectively in most cases.