The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has called on the Government to reduce the waiting time for redundancy rebate claims, with some businesses experiencing delays of more than six months before payments are received.
The organisation said the Government should speed up its payments to help businesses stabilise their cash flow.
Employers can be reimbursed 60 per cent of the statutory lump sum payment as part of their employer PRSI contribution to the Social Insurance Fund.
However, the chamber said that the increase in claims in recent months means that the Department is currently only handling rebate claims from January.
According to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment some 6,350 people were made redundant last month. This is a rise of almost 65 per cent on July 2008. In the first seven months of the year, there were 49,009 redundancies notified to the department under the statutory redundancy scheme - a 142 per cent increase on the 20,225 recorded for the same period in 2008.
The chamber said businesses were also waiting three times as long to be paid by debtors in general, with companies now seeing an average time of 90 days or more for payment.
"We knew from members anecdotally that trading conditions were tough, but the tripling of debtor days has surprised even us," said Gina Quin, Dublin Chamber chief executive.
"There is enormous pressure on companies to manage their cash flow. Restoring stability in the banking system is part of the picture, but Government can also help by ensuring that it pays on time."
According to the chamber, the number of employer claims lodged halfway through 2009 is more than the total number received for the full year 2008.
