15.—The Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act 1984 is amended in section 10 by inserting after subsection (2) the following subsection:

“(2A) Where the Minister makes a payment to an employee under section 6(2)(a)(iii)(II) (inserted by section 15 of the Redundancy Payments Act 2003) of this Act, that payment shall be recoverable by the Minister as a debt to be paid in priority to all other debts under—

(a) section 81 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, or

(b) section 285 (as amended by section 10 of the Companies (Amendment) Act 1982 and section 134 of the Companies Act 1990) of the Companies Act 1963,

and any amount of that payment which would, but for the limit set by section 6(4)(a) (as may be varied by regulations under section 11(5)), be payable to an employee, shall be treated for all purposes as if it were a payment required to be paid by virtue of an award under section 12(1) of the Act of 1973.”.