Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On what the Minister said about a right of audience, I understand what trustees' obligations are under trust law, namely, that they have a fiduciary duty and they must consider a number of issues, including the interests of pensioners, but the way the law is structured means they must consider all those issues in isolation from the pensioners, after which they notify them of the result.

In many cases that is the end of the matter. For example, in a submission to me, the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament indicated that in many schemes, pensioners and their associations are denied access to scheme trustees and sponsoring employers, with no direct communication. As I understand it from the submission of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament and others, up to the 1970s pensioners had a right of audience to the industrial relations machinery of the State, and following a successful pensioner case, the then Minister for labour affairs changed the law. Could we go back to the position that applied before he changed the law, as the circumstances which resulted in him changing the law have changed again?