Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleagues on this committee. People who paid into their pensions over years and decades in some cases have a legitimate expectation but the rug has been pulled from under their feet. It is wrong. In instances where Ministers are getting second and third pensions, we are told that they are legitimate expectations and there is talk about property rights. In instances where workers have paid into the scheme, they should have the same protection. The amendments put forward by the other members and Deputy Clare Daly try to address that question of funding, fairness and deferred and retired members. Where can these issues be raised now? How can they be dealt with? How can we have a debate on this now and move forward, particularly given that the airport workers in the IASS scheme are approaching the final hurdle? They have been let down by a company that could well afford to pay into the scheme but did not do so.