With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 53, 54 and 55 together.
It is not possible to furnish answers to these questions in the precise form sought by the Deputy. From an examination of decisions of the Redundancy Appeals Tribunal, a total of 55 appeals were heard by the tribunal to which section 24 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, applied. Of these 55 appeals, the tribunal in seven cases expressed no opinion on the question of whether or not, but for section 24, the appeals would have succeeded. In 36 cases the tribunal held that, irrespective of section 24, the appellants were not entitled to lump sums or weekly redundancy payments. In 11 cases the tribunal decided that the appellants satisfied the general conditions for redundancy payments, except for the provisions of section 24, and were entitled to weekly redundancy payments. In the remaining case, the tribunal held that the appellant was not eligible for redundancy payments because of the 1969 High Court decision in the Limerick Health Authority v. Mrs. Anna Ryan case.
From the above particulars, it will be seen that in only 11 of the 55 cases were the entitlements of the appellants concerned to redundancy payments, but for the application of section 24 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, established by the tribunal. Weekly redundancy payments have been or will be paid to the 11 employees concerned. The employers concerned in these 11 cases, three employers in all, failed to give notices to the employees concerned under sections 17 or 18 of the Act. The decisions of the tribunal in ten of the 11 cases have been published only at the end of January, 1971. In the remaining case, my Department secured the payment by the employers to the employee concerned of the lump sum to which he would have been entitled but for the failure of his appeal under section 24 and for lump sum payments to be made by the employer to eight other employees of the same company who were dismissed in the same circumstances. I decided, in view of the employer's agreement to pay lump sums to the nine employees, that proceedings should not be instituted against the company.
56.