Redundancy in Ireland in 2026: your rights, the statutory sum and what happens next

Redundancy is one of the five reasons the law accepts for a dismissal, but it has a precise meaning. The job disappears, or the work shrinks, or the business closes or moves. The person is not the reason. If you have been told your role is redundant, the questions that matter are whether the redundancy is real, whether you were chosen fairly, what you are owed, and what to do with the time afterwards. This guide takes each in turn.

What redundancy actually means

The Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2014 define redundancy as a dismissal that is wholly or mainly caused by one of a short list of business changes: the employer ceases to carry on the business, or ceases it at the place you were employed; the requirement for employees to do work of a particular kind has ceased or diminished; the employer has decided to carry on the business with fewer employees; the work is to be done in a different manner for which you are not sufficiently qualified or trained; or the work is to be done by someone who can also do other work for which you are not qualified.

The common thread is that the change is about the job, not about you. An employer who replaces you with another person doing the same work has not made you redundant. An employer who makes one person "redundant" shortly after a disagreement, then hires again for the same role, may not have a genuine redundancy. The WRC looks at whether the role itself went, and if it did not, the dismissal may be unfair under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015.

Genuine redundancy and fair selection

Two separate questions decide whether a redundancy dismissal is fair.

Was the redundancy genuine? The employer has to be able to show the business reason: falling orders, a closure, a restructuring that removed the post. Documents help. A new hire into the same role a few weeks later, or a job advertisement for your old duties, points the other way.

Was the selection fair? Where more than one person did the same kind of work and only some are let go, the employer has to use a selection method and apply it consistently. "Last in, first out" is common where it is the custom in the workplace; so are skills matrices and scored criteria. Selection that rests on a protected ground (age, gender, family status, disability, race or any of the other equality grounds), on trade union activity, or on having taken statutory leave, may be unfair or discriminatory. The WRC also expects the employer to have looked for alternatives: a different role, reduced hours by agreement, or redeployment.

If you were dismissed on grounds of redundancy and either question has a weak answer, you may have an unfair dismissal claim as well as a redundancy claim. The 12 months' service threshold for unfair dismissal still applies, with the usual exceptions, and the unfair dismissal time limit is 6 months from the dismissal.

The statutory redundancy sum

You qualify for a statutory lump sum if you have at least 104 weeks' continuous service with the employer, you are over 16, and you were in employment that is insurable under the Social Welfare Acts. Part-time employees qualify in the same way.

The formula is:

• two weeks' pay for every year of continuous service, plus
• one extra week's pay,
• with weekly pay capped at €600.

Complete years count in full. For the remaining days, the Department's calculator counts the excess days divided by 365 as a fraction of a year. Service before your 16th birthday is excluded.

A worked example. You have worked for the same employer for 10 complete years and earn €800 a week. Weekly pay is capped at €600. The sum is (10 years × 2 weeks) + 1 week = 21 weeks. 21 × €600 = €12,600. If you earned €500 a week instead, the cap would not bite and the sum would be 21 × €500 = €10,500.

The statutory sum is free of income tax, USC and PRSI. The calculator explainer walks through part years, breaks in service and part-time work, and the redundancy calculator does the arithmetic from your own dates and pay.

Your employer may offer more than the statutory minimum. Anything above it is an ex gratia or enhanced payment and is taxed under different rules; see redundancy and tax.

The process you should expect

There is no single statutory procedure for an individual redundancy, but the Unfair Dismissals Acts and the WRC's decisions set out what a fair process looks like.

1. Warning and consultation. You should be told that your role is at risk before any decision is final, given the reason, and given a chance to respond and to suggest alternatives.
2. Selection explained. If there was a pool, you should be told the criteria and how you scored.
3. Alternatives considered. The employer should look at other roles, including ones at a lower grade, and tell you what it found.
4. Written notice. The employer must give you written notice of the redundancy and your termination date. Your minimum notice entitlement runs alongside; see redundancy notice periods.
5. Payment on or shortly after the termination date. The statutory sum is paid by the employer. The old RP50 form is gone; the employer no longer files a paper form for each redundancy, and you do not need a form to be paid.

If your employer cannot pay because it is insolvent, the Department of Social Protection pays the statutory sum from the Social Insurance Fund on the employer's or the liquidator's application. The guide on when the employer cannot pay covers the route and the timescales.

Collective redundancies

Where the numbers are large enough, the Protection of Employment Act 1977 adds a collective layer: at least 30 days' consultation with employee representatives and notice to the Minister before the first dismissal takes effect. The thresholds in the Act (drawn from commentary and to be checked against the Act) are 5 or more redundancies where the employer has 20 to 49 employees, 10 or more where it has 50 to 99, 10% or more where it has 100 to 299, and 30 or more where it has 300 or more. The consultation is meant to cover whether the redundancies can be avoided or reduced, and the selection criteria.

Notice, holiday pay and your final payslip

Redundancy does not cancel your other entitlements.

• Minimum notice. After 13 weeks' service you are owed at least one week's notice, rising to two weeks after 2 years, four after 5, six after 10 and eight after 15 under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005. Your contract can give more, never less. Pay in lieu is allowed.
• Annual leave. Any annual leave accrued and not taken is paid in your final pay.
• Public holidays. A public holiday falling within a week of your leaving may also be owed.
• A written statement. Ask for the redundancy calculation in writing, with the dates and the weekly pay the employer used.

Tax on redundancy

The statutory lump sum is not taxed at all. An ex gratia payment on top of it is taxable, but Revenue allows an exemption: the Basic Exemption of €10,160 plus €765 for each complete year of service; the Increased Exemption of up to €10,000 more where you have not had, and are not getting, a tax-free pension lump sum; or the SCSB, which is your average annual pay over the last three years multiplied by complete years of service and divided by 15. You get the highest of the three, subject to a €200,000 lifetime cap on tax-free ex gratia payments. The tax guide works the figures through.

Social welfare after redundancy

Most people made redundant sign on for a jobseeker's payment while they look for work. There are two.

Jobseeker's Benefit rests on your PRSI contributions. It is not means tested, so your redundancy lump sum does not reduce it. The Department can apply a waiting period where you are under a certain age and received a large redundancy payment; the age and amount thresholds are the Department's own and are not reproduced here because they could not be verified for this guide, so check the Department's Jobseeker's Benefit page before you rely on them.

Jobseeker's Allowance is means tested. Savings, including a redundancy lump sum you hold in the bank, are counted as means, so a large sum can reduce or remove the payment. If you do not have enough PRSI contributions for Jobseeker's Benefit, Allowance is the route, and the means test will apply.

Apply through MyWelfare or your Intreo centre as soon as your employment ends, with your employment detail summary from Revenue and the written confirmation of your redundancy.

Voluntary redundancy

If your employer invites volunteers, taking the offer does not change the legal character of what happens: it is still a redundancy. The statutory sum is still owed, the tax rules are the same, and you are not disqualified from a jobseeker's payment for having volunteered. The guide on voluntary redundancy sets out what to ask before you accept.

Lay-off and short time

If your employer stops your work temporarily, or cuts your hours to less than half, that is a lay-off or short time rather than a redundancy. After four consecutive weeks, or six weeks in any thirteen, you can give written notice of your intention to claim a redundancy payment, and the employer has seven days to counter-notice. See lay-off and short time.

Redundancy on maternity or sick leave

Notice of redundancy cannot be served while you are on maternity leave, and a dismissal connected with pregnancy or maternity needs no minimum service for an unfair dismissal claim. Redundancy while on sick leave is possible but has to be genuine and fairly selected, and the sum is worked out on your normal pay, not your reduced pay. See redundancy on maternity or sick leave.

The WRC route

There are two different complaints, with two different clocks.

• The statutory sum has not been paid, or has been underpaid. A complaint under the Redundancy Payments Acts goes to the WRC, which can order the employer to pay the correct sum. The Acts give a longer window for this complaint than for most others, but the safe course is to treat the general WRC rule as your deadline: 6 months from the date of dismissal, extendable to 12 for reasonable cause. The deadline checker works the date out.
• The redundancy was not genuine, or the selection was unfair. A complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Acts must be brought within 6 months of the dismissal, extendable to 12 months for reasonable cause and never beyond. Compensation is for financial loss, up to 104 weeks' remuneration, and any statutory redundancy you received is taken into account. The awards register shows what adjudicators have ordered.

Both go through the same online complaint form, with no fee and free mediation offered first. The how to make a WRC complaint guide takes you through the form.

Where this leaves you

Start with the arithmetic: the redundancy calculator gives you the statutory sum from your start date, end date and weekly pay, applies the €600 cap, and works out the tax exemptions on any ex gratia offer. Then ask your employer for its own calculation in writing and compare. If the redundancy itself looks doubtful, or the figures do not match and the employer will not explain, a solicitor can tell you where you stand; the enquiry page explains how that works on this site.