Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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890. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason the €600 per week cap on statutory redundancy payments has not been reviewed and revised upwards in 20 years; if he will do so; if he will commit to then benchmarking the rate against annual wage growth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41360/25]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Redundancy Payments Act 1967, as amended, provides for a minimum statutory redundancy payment to eligible employees. An eligible employee is entitled to two weeks' pay for every year of service plus one additional week's pay, with weekly pay capped at €600 per week. The €600 per week salary cap has applied since 2005.

In order to be eligible for a statutory redundancy payment, an employee must have at least two years’ continuous service over the age of 18 and be in employment which is insurable under the Social Welfare Acts.

In relation to the statutory redundancy rate, the Redundancy Payments Act 1979 Act provides that, when setting a weekly pay cap for redundancy payments, the Minister must take into account any changes in the average earnings of workers in the transportable goods industries as recorded by the Central Statistics Office. Any regulations are subject to the consent of the Minister for Finance. There are no immediate plans to increase the statutory redundancy payment, but my officials are keeping this matter under active review.

The Government is committed to promoting positive working conditions in Ireland. In recent years Government have introduced a range of measures to assist workers including increases to the National Minimum wage, statutory sick pay, the right to remote work and an additional public holiday.

However, it is also important to maintain a regulatory environment that allows businesses to remain viable, and, indeed, to thrive. The rights of employees to a reasonable redundancy payment must be considered in the context of potential increased costs to some businesses, and an economic environment in which the costs of doing business has increased substantially in recent years. Consultation with other Government Departments, employer and employee representative groups and other relevant stakeholders would also be required.