Hi Brian
If part of your redundancy payment is going to be taxable, you could ask your employer to set up a pension plan for you and put some of the money they were going to pay as a redundancy payment into the pension plan.
I'm not sure the Revenue would be happy if this were done as a direct trade off, but you could agree with your employer to accept a lower redundancy package in recognition of the fact that they are providing a pension for you. Provided you do not have a contactual right to a higher redundancy payment, this should be alright from a Revenue viewpoint.
The advantage of this approach is that it would allow you to kick start your pension in a tax efficient manner, without having to worry about the age related limits applying under a personal pension or PRSA. Whether it will confer any significant advantage to you is dependent on your exact circumstances - age, salary, service, etc.
Regards
Homer