I move:
That Seanad Éireann approve the following Order in draft—
Redundancy Contributions (Variation of Rates) Order, 1971—
a copy of which Order in draft was laid before Seanad Éireann on 12th January, 1971.
Redundancy Contributions Order: Motion.
The purpose of this Order is to fix the decimalised rates of weekly redundancy contributions which will be payable by employers and employees from 15th February, 1971—Decimal Day.
Under the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967, employers pay weekly contributions to the Redundancy Fund at the rate of 8d for each male worker and 6d for each female worker. A male worker pays 4d a week and a female worker 3d a week. These rates were laid down in the 1967 Act but subsection (3) of section 28 of the Act provided that the rates could be varied by order of the Minister for Labour, subject, under section 5 of the Act, to affirmatory resolutions of both Houses of the Oireachtas.
The need for the draft Order, which is now before the House for approval, arises from the fact that the rates in force up to now have no exact equivalents in decimal currency and new decimalised rates have, therefore, to be brought into operation from Decimal Day.
The effect of the Order, if approved, will be that, as from 15th February, employers will pay weekly redundancy contributions at the rate of three new pence for each employee, whether male or female, whereas the workers' contributions will be two new pennies for each man and one new penny for each female. The proposed new rates are in accordance with the conversion table in the Decimal Currency Act, 1970. Because there are no precise equivalents in decimal currency of the existing contribution rates, the proposed decimalised rates will, of necessity, have to reflect some variations in the rates of contributions payable by the different categories of contributors but these variations are very small. The net effect, so far as income to the Redundancy Fund is concerned, will be very slight.
I believe that the rates proposed in the draft Order represent an equitable conversion to decimal of the existing contribution rates.
Accordingly, I recommend to the House to approve the Order in draft.
It is inevitable that some changes must be made in accordance with the decimalisation procedure and, as the Minister has indicated, difficulties naturally arise in regard to cases where exact equivalents do not apply. We have been reassured continually that, following decimalisation when rates are adjusted, by and large there will not be a greater burden on the public. According to my reckoning, this Order may well prove to be an augury. When it comes to decimalisation rounding, the Minister will have four categories with which to deal. In one of the four he gets almost an exact equivalent. In the other three, he does not and, on my reckoning, when the Minister comes to do his rounding where he has not got an exact equivalent, he round up in two cases and rounds down in one case. Therefore, I think we are getting off to a very bad start in regard to this question of the rounding off of figures due to decimalisation. I hope in fact that this is not an augury of what is to come, either in regard to the various charges which the Government make in the particular form of taxation which takes the form of social welfare contributions, and that it is not an augury of what the public are to suffer also from private sources.
It is not open to us to amend this Order in any way so I can do very little more on this occasion, but I can express anxiety in this particular regard. I am not quite sure whether I heard the Minister correctly, but I understood from him that the difference in regard to the original 8d and 6d was in regard to male and female workers. If I am right in this, these two rates have now been amalgamated at a common rate of three new pence. If so, I hope that this is a good augury of the Minister's approach. In other words, that in this particular regard the same rate now applies to male and female workers and that this is a prelude to the adoption of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value which I hope the Minister will proceed to put in force throughout the whole of the part of the economy which is under his control or under his persuasion.
The previous rate was 8d for employers of men and 4d for the worker, which was 1s. According to the conversion table the nearest we can go to that is three new pence for the employer and two new pence for the worker. That means that the employer is paying somewhat less in the case of the employer of men and the worker is paying slightly more. The opposite is the case for the employer of women. He paid sixpence and is now paying three new pence, which is a slight increase in the amount he was previously paying. The female worker is paying one penny, which is somewhat less than what she previously paid. It is the nearest that it is possible to go unless one runs downwards and at a loss to the Redundancy Fund. As Senators are aware there will shortly be a Redundancy Bill here from the Dáil. This Bill seeks to utilise the surplus in that fund to improve benefits generally. In view of the uncertainty of the future, one cannot take a chance on diminishing the Redundancy Fund.
I deliberately refrained from discussing the question of the state of the Redundancy Fund in view of the fact that legislation will be coming to us.
Question put and agreed to.