Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has announced a one-off, tax-free payment will be made available to workers who were laid off due to the pandemic to bridge the gap in their redundancy entitlements.

With the commencement of the Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Act, the government will provide a special payment of up to €2,268 to those who were made redundant during the pandemic, between 13 March, 2020 and 31 January, 2022.

"We want to make sure workers don’t lose out on payments and on the other hand, business owners aren’t faced with a flood of additional redundancy costs, just when they’re trying to get back on their feet," Varadkar said.

"This Act provides the best outcome for both employers and employees.

“Redundancy rights for people who were placed on lay-off during the pandemic is one of the five new worker rights I committed to introducing this year. The commencement of this Act fulfils this promise.”

In Association with

Under statutory redundancy rules, periods spent on lay-off within the final three years of an employee’s service do not count as "reckonable service" for the purposes of statutory redundancy payments.

The new law ensures that employees who are made redundant, are eligible for a statutory redundancy payment and were placed on lay-off due to Covid-19 restrictions are not disadvantaged in the calculation of their redundancy entitlements.

The amount an eligible worker will receive will depend on the length of time they were placed on lay-off due to Covid-19 before the date they were made redundant, based on existing statutory redundancy rules.

The maximum to which any employee will be entitled is €2,268, if they earned €600 or more a week and were laid off due to Covid-19 restrictions for the full period from 13 March, 2020 to 31 January, 2022. The scheme will be administered by the Department of Social Protection.

"This scheme was developed in order to ensure individuals impacted by being laid off during the Pandemic will not lose out on their entitlements," Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said.

“The new system is employer-led. This means that, for the majority of eligible employees, their employer, liquidator or relevant officer will apply for this payment on their behalf. Applications can be made online via the Welfare Partners website.”

Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Damien English added: “Many sectors are rebounding since the lifting of Covid restrictions which is a real tribute to the resilience of Irish businesses and their workers. While we have good reason to be optimistic, a uniform and smooth recovery is not guaranteed and, regrettably, some redundancies will arise.

“This new payment will be made by the State and is in addition to normal statutory redundancy. The payment ensures employees who were placed on temporary lay-off over the last two years due to essential Covid-related restrictions and who are made redundant are not disadvantaged.

“In recognition of the fact that these periods of lay-off were due to state restrictions, the government has agreed that the state should meet these costs.

“I am pleased that the new payment will cover all periods of lay-off that were caused by the necessary restrictions introduced by government to protect public health, that is any lay-offs from 13 March 2020 to 31 January 2022.”