Taxpayers owed €50m from redundancy debts

TAXPAYERS are owed nearly €50 million from companies that have evaded paying their redundancy debts, the state’s financial watchdog last night warned.

The Enterprise and Employment Department was warned to get a grip on the situation by the Oireachtas’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as job loses are set to spiral this year.

While the state pays 60% of redundancy payments, employers are obliged to meet the rest, but the amount owing has rocketed from €13.5m at the end of 2002 to €48m last year.