If you’ve been offered a redundancy package, the first question is nearly always the same: is this normal? There is no official “average redundancy package” in Ireland — no body publishes one — but there are well-established market patterns, and knowing where your offer sits against them is the starting point for deciding whether to accept, question, or negotiate.
The Floor: Statutory Redundancy
The legal minimum, under the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967–2014, is two weeks’ gross pay per year of service plus one bonus week, with weekly pay capped at €600. For a 10-year employee that is 21 weeks at no more than €600 — a maximum of €12,600, tax-free. You can work out your own figure in seconds with our free Redundancy Calculator Ireland, and check whether you qualify at all in our statutory entitlement guide. Everything beyond this floor is an ex-gratia (enhanced) payment — and that is where packages vary enormously.
What Do Typical Enhanced Packages Look Like?
In practice, enhanced offers in Ireland tend to cluster into recognisable bands. These are market patterns, not entitlements — every employer and every redundancy round is different:
| Band | Typical terms | Commonly seen in |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory only | 2 weeks/year + 1 week, €600 cap | Small employers; insolvency situations |
| Modest enhancement | 3–4 weeks/year inclusive of statutory, often uncapped | Irish SMEs; retail; hospitality groups |
| Strong package | 5–6 weeks/year inclusive, uncapped, sometimes with minimum floors | Multinationals; tech; pharma; financial services; unionised employments |
| Exceptional | 6+ weeks/year, service floors, extended benefits, outplacement | Long-established multinationals; negotiated collective deals; senior exits |
Two details matter as much as the headline multiple. First, whether the weeks are capped or uncapped: “4 weeks per year” at actual salary is worth far more than the same multiple at the €600 statutory cap. Second, whether the offer is inclusive or exclusive of statutory — “4 weeks inclusive” and “2 weeks plus statutory” can describe very similar money dressed differently.
What Determines Where Your Offer Lands?
The strongest predictor is precedent: what the same employer paid in previous rounds, and what comparable employers in the sector pay. Custom and practice can, in some circumstances, harden into an implied entitlement. Beyond precedent, packages reflect the employer’s financial position, whether a collective consultation (and union negotiation) is involved, how much the employer wants signed settlement agreements waiving claims, and — bluntly — how much legal risk sits in the selection process. An employer with a questionable selection exercise has a stronger incentive to pay for certainty.
The Tax Position: Why Structure Matters
The statutory element is entirely tax-free. Ex-gratia amounts can also be received tax-free within limits: the Basic Exemption (€10,160 plus €765 per complete year of service), a possible Increased Exemption of up to €10,000 more, and the SCSB formula, which often produces the highest tax-free figure for long-serving or higher-paid employees — all subject to the €200,000 lifetime cap. The same headline package can produce very different net outcomes depending on how it is structured, so the tax treatment should be confirmed with your accountant before you sign.
Offered a package? Know where it sits before you sign.
A solicitor’s review checks the statutory calculation, benchmarks the ex-gratia element against your employer’s history and the market, and explains exactly what claims the settlement agreement asks you to waive.
Call 01 5827148 for a confidential consultation