This legislation, as explained in the Dáil, is consequential on legislation which had been brought before the House by the Minister for Social Welfare in terms of the Social Welfare Bill. Briefly, the social welfare legislation produced by the Minister for Social Welfare absolved widows and other categories from payment of social welfare contributions and the part of the stamp which went on redundancy payments.
When the Minister for Social Welfare made this revision it followed that in respect of the contribution for redundancy purposes to the same stamp for the same category of people, that those people should be absolved from this payment in terms of the Redundancy Bill. The sole purpose of this Bill is to remove this liability from widows, deserted wives and unmarried mothers who are receiving pensions or allowances as such under one or other of the schemes of the Department of Social Welfare and who take up insurable employment with a liability to pay contributions to the Redundancy Fund. They will, of course, continue to be eligible for redundancy lump sums and weekly payments subject to the conditions of the Redundancy Payments Acts of 1967 and 1971.
The Bill is consistent with the social reform programme of this Government which inspired the decision to remove the liability of the categories concerned for contributions under the Social Welfare Bill, 1973. My follow-up action on this is a measure of my endorsement of that policy. To achieve our purpose, a short amending Act is necessary. It is essential that the legislation be enacted before the end of this month in order to harmonise with the relevant social welfare legislation. I recommend the Bill to the House.