Vol. 551 No. 4
175 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the discriminatory treatment of persons aged under 55 years in respect of the nine week interruption in social welfare rights following acceptance of a redundancy deal; and his views on whether this is in accordance with the Government's policy of non-discrimination on age grounds. [10885/02]
180 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if the difference in treatment of redundancy of under 55s and over 55s represents age discrimination contrary to the spirit of Government policy. [10942/02]
I propose to take Question Nos. 175 and 180 together.
A person aged under 55 who receives a redundancy payment of more than €19,046.07 from his employer is disqualified from receiving unemployment benefit for up to nine weeks. The actual duration of the disqualification is a matter for the deciding officer in each case, but the guidelines recommend that the length of the disqualification be linked to the size of the redundancy payment in each case.
People over the age of 55 are not affected by this restriction. There is considerable evidence that older people who become unemployed are less likely to become re-employed than younger workers. The study Employability and its Relevance for the Management of the Live Register, published by the ESRI last year, showed that the gap between younger and older workers in this regard actually increased between 1992 and 2000.
Given that older workers face this level of disadvantage in the labour market, it is considered that their more favourable treatment in relation to redundancy payments is justified.
