Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Jul 1996

Vol. 468 No. 4

Written Answers. - Irish Steel Redundancy Payments.

Máirín Quill

Ceist:

800 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment whether independent funding from Government sources will be put in place to meet the redundancy payment due to former Irish Steel workers; and whether payments will be made on a lump sum basis. [15023/96]

Ned O'Keeffe

Ceist:

816 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment when the 200 workers who were made redundant at Irish Steel in 1994 will be paid the re-adaptation aid under Article 56 (2) (b) of the ECSC Treaty for ex-Irish Steel workers in view of the fact that 378,000 ECU is available for payment to the workers if his Department will agree to match these funds; and if his attention has been drawn to the dissatisfaction amongst the workforce and the redundant workers in view of the delay in this regard. [15654/96]

Máirín Quill

Ceist:

820 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the proposals, if any, the Government has in respect of redundancy payments due to former employees of Irish Steel; whether the Government's contribution in this respect will be forthcoming; and when payments will be made. [15941/96]

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. R. Bruton)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 800, 816 and 820 together.

Deputy Quill refers, in her questions, to redundancy payments due to former Irish Steel employees. There are no outstanding redundancy payments due to former employees of Irish Steel Ltd. All employees made redundant by Irish Steel Ltd. received their redundancy payments in full on leaving the company. The Deputy may have in mind the question of readaptation aid from the EU, under Article 56 (2) (b) of the ECSC Treaty. As the Deputies are aware, my Department received a communication from the EU Commission confirming that the Commission has approved grant aid, under Article 56 (2) (b) of the ECSC Treaty, amounting to ECU 376,806 for 194 workers made redundant in 1994-5.

The EU Commission has been advised that their pre-conditions for the release of the readaptation aid have been met, now that the State aid, which was approved by the EU, has been paid to the company on completion of the sale on 30 May 1996. My Department is seeking an early decision by the Commission, therefore, to release the readptation aid. My Department has also asked that this readaptation aid be paid to the eligible former employees in a lump sum. We await clarification from the Commission on these issues.

Deputy O'Keeffe refers to 200 workers in his question. As I have indicated previously, my Department initially applied for readaptation aid in respect of 205 workers in Irish Steel Ltd. as a result of the 1994 rationalisation plan. This figure was ultimately revised to 194 to take account of workers who did not actually receive redundancy payments such as apprentices, workers who terminated their employment but were not made redundant, workers scheduled for redundancy but subsequently retained and a small number of additional redundancies. I am aware of the concern of the former workers regarding this matter and officials from my Department met with representatives of the former workers in June to outline the current situation. It was brought to the attention of my Department, only last month, that the list of eligible workers as supplied by Irish Steel Ltd. and subsequently forwarded by my Department to the Commission was incomplete. Following correspondence with Irish Ispat Ltd. — formerly Irish Steel Ltd. — an additional list of employees made redundant during the period was forwarded to my Department. The eligibility of these additional workers will, however be an additional matter for decision by the Commission.