Temp Layoff / Covid / Redundancy

I know that if you are on temporary layoff as a result of Covid, that the usual 12 week period has been extended to the end of November before the employee may request redundancy.

What though if an employer is happy to offer the employee redundancy? I see no reason why this cannot be accommodated.

staff member is marked as a leaver in payroll as was advised back in April/May when the whole sh1t show was kicking off.

Being told by our over cautious HR advisors that we cannot do this and we have to wait till the staff member returns to work and then go through the usual hoops of advising them their job is in the balance etc and give them notice that in a month they may be given notice that they will be given their redundancy notice!

We don't have a pot to p155 in and would be sending the staff member to claim from DEASP. They just want their payout, we are happy for it, but HR saying no.

Can anyone advise, because it just makes no sense to have to bring them back on the payroll for 3-4 months to work the notice periods. Defeats the purpose really. They wouldn't be coming back to work either, just going on the payroll and we would only pay the basic €203 per week which we can claim from the EWSS.