Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2013
68. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason no attempt has been made to recover from employers the full sum of social welfare appeals or other social protection payments paid to employees who are found to have been wrongfully dismissed by the Labour Court. [33262/13]
View answerUnder the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2007 a person may take a case to the Rights Commissioner Service or to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) if they feel they have been unfairly dismissed from employment. Where the case is upheld an award may be made against the employer in accordance with the penalties set out in that legislation. The unfair dismissals legislation falls under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. However, I understand it provides for social welfare payments received after their dismissal to be disregarded in calculating the person’s financial loss. Therefore, the person is not penalised for having been in receipt of a social welfare payment following their dismissal. The purpose of the insolvency payments scheme is to protect certain outstanding pay-related entitlements due to employees where their employer is insolvent in line with the legislation governing the scheme. These include wages, holiday pay, and various statutory awards made by the EAT and the Rights Commissioners, including awards under the unfair dismissals legislation. The Minister becomes a preferential creditor with regard to payments made under the scheme.
Generally, where the employer is continuing to trade, the Department would not be aware, and would have no reason to be aware, that a person had received an award under the Unfair Dismissals Acts. Therefore, it would not be possible for the Department to recoup social welfare payments from the employer. In addition, to do so could be inequitable, it would likely be administratively complex and it may have implications for the unfair dismissals process as a whole. Consideration of such issues would be a matter for my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the first instance.
