Vol. 397 No. 7
15 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Social Welfare the estimated additional costs to his Department in social welfare payments in the event of a redundancy involving the loss of 100 jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Given the current level of expenditure on unemployment payments a redundancy involving 100 jobs would lead to an additional expenditure of some £0.3 million in unemployment payments in a full year. In addition there would be a loss of social insurance income which would amount to some £227,000 if it were assumed that the 100 redundant workers had been employed at the male industrial wage. There would also be a tax revenue and levies etc. loss to the Exchequer.
It may be anticipated that the level of redundancies and the expenditure on unemployment payments, to which they give rise, will decline. There has already been substantial improvement in this regard. Notified redundancies fell by over 40 per cent in 1989, and new claims for unemployment benefit have fallen by some 14 per cent in the last year. These trends will be reinforced by the progressive improvement in the employment situation anticipated for 1990.
