Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too have serious concerns about this Bill. It is one thing to deal with the different entities in Shannon, but in this Bill we are dealing with significant issues that will affect the pensions of employees as well as the deferred members of the pension scheme. While the issues are interconnected, I believe they are so serious that they should have been considered separately instead of together. The pensions issue will have a major impact. For instance, people who are on deferred pensions maintain - I assume they are correct - that if a person were to go on a deferred pension now they would lose about 10% but if they went on a pension in three or four years' time they could lose half their pension. A woman in my constituency was literally crying about losing half of a pension pot worth €25,000. Her husband is 61 and has a number of years to go before he reaches the age at which he will be able to avail of the pension. This has huge implications for people in these circumstances.