Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the sentiments of this amendment. I would go further and include the deferred members in such an appeal mechanism. As a group, they may find themselves out of synch. In some ways the trustees hold all the cards in these events. For those without the representation of, for example, a union, it would be important to have some type of appeals mechanism to allow them to put their case if they feel they have been disproportionately impacted by a particular change. I am not arguing that such an appeals mechanism should be outlined in full in the legislation at this stage, but that could be done by way of regulation. I may table an amendment based on Deputy O'Dea's amendment to ensure that the appeals body would be established by regulation or suchlike. It should outline the manner in which these people could be represented in such a process. We do not want each individual pensioner or deferred member having to take a case to appeal. It should be possible for them to be grouped together or, as we discussed earlier, have a representative group identified by the Minister or whatever.

It is also in line with the proposals we made on representation for the deferred members to ensure their cases would be taken on board at an early stage when their changes are being discussed. There would be less need for them to be included in an appeals mechanism if the deferred members were fully represented at an earlier stage, but there is no harm in having them there. As the earlier amendments were not accepted, we should press this to ensure it is put in place. Hopefully the mechanism would never need to be activated. Simply having it would force the trustees to take greater account of it because they would know there would be a possibility of challenging them through an appeals mechanism and they would have to stand over it. Therefore it would force them to ensure that any decisions they take are proportionate in respect of the various groups, the active members, the current and future pensioners.