Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2022-03-08
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Niall Ó Donnghaile (SF), Administrative Panel

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English. My apologies for not being here for his earlier contribution. I am speaking on behalf of my colleague, Senator Gavan, who has asked me to pass on his apologies for not being here.
The Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill 2022 is a response to the decision taken at the beginning of the pandemic whereby section 12A of the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 was suspended. This was at a time when thousands of people suddenly found themselves out of work and when life as we knew it shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a terrible shock and a traumatic time for those affected by job losses and for so many small business owners who had to close their doors. The decision taken to suspend section 12A at that time was taken to protect workers from being made redundant. Employers were also protected so that they would not be inundated with workers applying for redundancy payments. However, because of the decision, several technical difficulties arose for workers who were laid off or on short time and for those in receipt of the PUP.
The Bill provides for a once-off redundancy payment to workers in respect of certain lay-off periods, during the period beginning on 13 March and ending at the end of September 2021. Under the Redundancy Payments Act, statutory redundancy is based on duration of service and a qualified employee is entitled to two weeks' pay per year of service, plus a bonus week, subject to a cap of €600 in earnings per week, payable by the employer. Under the existing Act, periods of lay-off in the final three years of service do not count as reckonable service, meaning that redundancy entitlements will not factor in those periods. Therefore that would result in a loss in relation to redundancy payments. Thankfully, that is addressed within the Bill. It ensures affected workers can access a tax-free State payment of up to €1,860 financed by the Social Insurance Fund to compensate for the break in their service caused by the pandemic and associated public-health restrictions.
It would be good to hear from the Minister of State at this point on whether there are more details about the operational and practical side of delivering the scheme and rolling it out. There will be people anxiously waiting to find out how and when they can apply. We want to work with the Minister of State to get this legislation over the line as efficiently and effectively as possible but it is important that the details of how the scheme will be delivered are explained for people. We do not want to see a situation where the scheme sits between two Ministers with neither really taking full responsibility, because it is not clear whether responsibility will be directly upon the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment or upon the Minister for Social Protection. Will the Minister of State clarify at this stage whether the application will be online or paper-based and how it will work in practice? The details on that would be very helpful.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-03-08