I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his appointment to his prestigious post and wish him well. I have no doubt that he will do extremely well given his long and great career. He is following the steps of great Limerick politicians. I welcome Senator McHugh as a new Member and thank him for tabling this motion.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment carried out an internal review of the redundancy payments scheme earlier this year. With an almost 50% increase in the number of redundancy claims during 2001 compared to 2000, the Department reviewed the operation of redundancy legislation and scheme from an administrative efficiency perspective as well as from a customer service aspect. The purpose of this internal review was to examine the rationale and continued relevance of the scheme, discover whether its delivery could be made more customer-friendly, find out if greater use of information technology could be made and suggest ways in which the operation of the scheme could be streamlined.
The review was completed in April 2002. It developed a vision of an improved statutory redundancy scheme which would involve appropriate, yet affordable, payments to redundant workers to meet the original principles, be simple to understand and involve administrative arrangements to maximise the use of e-government to deliver the scheme quickly and efficiently. As the review was nearing completion, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, in the face of certain cases where only statutory redundancy was paid to employees, initiated a campaign to have the benefits provided for under the scheme substantially increased.
In April 2002 the Government established a review group in the context of social partnership to examine the operation of the scheme to ensure it best meets the requirements of employers and employees. The group consisted of representatives of the social partners, including IBEC, the CIF, the ICTU, the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, Social and Family Affairs, and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which provided its chair and secretariat. The terms of reference of the review group included a review of the operation of the scheme, which is funded from the social insurance fund and operates on the basis of the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2001. It was also asked to identify the legislative, administrative and systemic requirements of a more effective, efficient and simple customer-service driven scheme adapted to an e-government environment. The group was further required to examine the benefit of developing options for Government and social partner consideration and report to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment within four months with recommendations and costings of the various proposals.
The Redundancy Review Group commenced its work in April 2002 and the Government considered the report last week. The report has now been published. The conclusions of the group are that agreement has been reached in a wide range of policy and administrative issues which will contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the operation of the scheme.
Policy issues that were agreed include the treatment of older workers, the insurability requirement, a ceiling on wages, qualification period, determination of weekly pay, non-reckonable service, employees working abroad, fines and penalties and the link between redundancy and training.
Administrative issues that were agreed include the rounding of years of service, forms used in the administration of the scheme and the need for a new computer system. To give effect to these efficiency measures the Government has agreed to prepare legislation that will reflect the conclusions of the Redundancy Review Group and other minor changes in redundancy legislation and to proceed with planning a new IT system, which will implement the legislative changes proposed by the review group and make the delivery of the redundancy scheme more efficient by maximising the use of e-government.
Agreement could not be reached within the group on a range of improvements in the level of benefits payable under the scheme. The ICTU has reactivated its campaign for improved benefits and will vigorously push for this in the next round of social partnership discussions.
The Redundancy Review Group agreed that customer service and administrative efficiency should result from an e-government approach to service delivery. This will require building such an approach into the proposed legislation and supporting IT. The measures identified by the Redundancy Review Group are an integrated package, requiring that legislation and associated IT delivery systems should be developed in an integrated manner to deliver efficiencies.
On foot of the work of the Redundancy Review Group, costings have been developed and shared with the social partners and relevant Departments on the full range of policy and benefit options. As a result informed analysis and costings are now available to Government and the social partners in the context of post-PPF negotiations. The Government hopes that the analysis developed by the Redundancy Review Group will facilitate agreement in the post-PPF negotiations on the level of statutory redundancy payments.