The government has pledged to complete a review of company law as it relates to redundancies and insolvencies by the end of the year.
It has also convened a forum with employer and union representatives to discuss redundancy and insolvency issues - though sources said no time frame for the consultation had been fixed at today's first meeting.
The move comes as the seven-month Debenhams dispute over enhanced redundancy payments for 1000 workers who lost their jobs when the Irish operation went into liquidation remains deadlocked.
Picketers continue to prevent liquidators KPMG from removing stock from the 11 closed stores around the country.
Today's first forum meeting was jointly chaired by the Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Damien English and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Company Regulation and Digital Robert.
In a statement, the Department of Business Enterprise and Innovation said the meeting was intended to allow representative groups an opportunity for "constructive engagement on these important issues as part of ongoing engagement by the government on these matters".
The Department said the forum would feed into a process already underway to review the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and the liquidation of companies, in order to ensure the rights of workers were effectively protected.
It added that under the direction of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, the Company Law Review Group is undertaking an expedited review of this commitment as it relates to company law which is set to be completed before the end of the year.
However, it remains unclear when the forum process might deliver measures that could end the deadlock in the Debenhams dispute.
Sources said the initiative was intended to look "broadly" at the whole area of insolvency and redundancies from both the company and employment perspectives - and stressed the general nature of today's discussion.
Unions have insisted that the proceeds of the sale of Debenhams stock should be ring-fenced to fund enhanced redundancy payments for former workers, ahead of other preferential creditors.
They have also sought implementation of the Duffy-Cahill review of the company law and employment law implications of closures commissioned five years ago in the wake of the Clerys liquidation.
The authors of that Duffy Cahill report appeared before the Oireachtas Enterprise, Trade and Employment Committee this morning, but were unable to confirm whether implementation of their recommendations would have delivered enhanced redundancy payments for the Debenhams employees.
