Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 July 2019
913. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of restoring redundancy rebates to businesses by 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31104/19]
View answerIt is an employer’s responsibility to pay statutory redundancy to eligible employees. Previously employers were entitled to a rebate from the state of 60% of the relevant redundancy payment. These rebates were abolished from 2013 due to the high cost to the Social Insurance Fund. These Employer rebates were paid to employers regardless of the financial situation of the company and their ability to make statutory redundancy payments.
The Department receives some information form employers through notifications of collective redundancies and also has data on applications received under the redundancy payments scheme. However, this data does not reflect the total number of actual redundancies that take place across the workforce.
The cost to the Social Insurance Fund arising from the restoration of redundancy rebates to employers may also be impacted by the overall performance of the economy and how that performance impacts on the labour market and whether decisions taken by employers would lead to redundancies, temporary lay-offs or putting workers, for example, on a 3 day week.
For these reasons I am advised that my Department is not in a position to provide an accurate estimate of the cost of restoring redundancy payments to businesses.
