Mr. David Begg:

Senator Craughwell asked about comparisons between the IASS and Waterford Crystal. They were different in some respects. With regard to the Waterford Crystal case, the expectation of the long-term employees - people who had worked for nearly 40 years - was to get two thirds of a pension entitlement. More or less overnight, the scheme collapsed - it is termed "double insolvency" when a company and a pension scheme collapse - and resulted in the entitlement being reduced from nearly two thirds to an expectation of between 18% and 28%. Unite, which represented the people in Waterford Crystal, assisted by SIPTU, litigated successfully on this in Europe on the grounds that Ireland was obliged to have a pensions protection scheme in place but did not have one. That was a successful case but there was "a degree" question, that is, the extent to which the national system should cover the entitlements or the expectations of people in the scheme. Through a long process that was eventually worked out, an acceptable solution was negotiated and the people in Waterford Crystal were extremely happy with that. Indeed, some of them have said so in print in the past week. I had a role in discussing that with the Tánaiste, who made very considerable efforts to try to bring about a resolution to that situation, which was good in the end.

Senator Craughwell asked if there were difficulties trying to manage my role on the board of Aer Lingus and my position as general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. There were enormous difficulties, as it is a very difficult thing to do. There are huge legal constraints on one when one is a member of any board. Frankly, people were watching my every move to see what I did. The possibility of litigation in that situation was very real because the amounts of money involved were enormous. There were people who felt they did not need to, and should not have to, pony up the money which related to the needs of the workers there.

With regard to trustees' training, I absolutely agree that it is important. However, it is consequent on first of all trying to reform the enormous number of schemes in the country. There are 150,000 schemes, which is simply not sustainable and is an unmanageable situation. In my statement, I mentioned that there are 400 schemes in the Netherlands. I also refer to the element of part-dependency. One cannot take out a blank sheet of paper and construct a completely new model. One must have regard to what is already there. While I could see considerable opportunity for amalgamation of a defined contribution schemes, it would be extremely difficult to amalgamate the defined benefit schemes as individuals would have different promises and entitlements under those schemes.

I was asked about the roles of professionals. Given the gap between the experience of lay trustees and of professional trustees, does that mean professional trustees could have an overweening influence? In my experience, professional trustees have always acted extremely honourably and I do not believe they would ever do anything wrong in that case. Obviously, there is asymmetrical information between the two groups and the job of the board should be to try to bring up the skills of the lay trustees so they can, off their own bat, be competent to handle any issue which might come up.

I will now turn to Senator O'Donnell's question about my best qualification for this role. How about the fact I am a pensioner? Would that be a good starting point? I have a lot experience in different industries and aspects of life. In the past week, I would have said it was the virtue of being an old dog that is not gun-shy because so much fire has been directed at me. If I was gun-shy, I would have gone to ground a long time ago.

I cannot really answer the comments on the Clery's workers' situation because I do not have a knowledge of that particular pension. That problem blew up a considerable time after I left the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. While I am aware of it as it is in the public domain, I do not have a detailed, intimate knowledge of the situation.

With regard to the national lottery and whether it should have been sold, it appears to have been a Government decision designed to increase revenue for the Exchequer. One might say that retaining a profitable lottery into the future would be better but this is a judgment call. I do not want to say too much on it on that front.

I was asked about the statistics. We might have been a little bit at cross-purposes and I am sorry I cut across. The point I was trying to make was that the size of the population of over 65s will increase dramatically. I believe it will double by the year 2056 from what it is currently. This will bring a lot of attendant problems. People will be older and they will live longer but the cost of maintaining people against chronic illness and so on is an aspect of demographics which is very difficult. It is an extremely valuable point. Consider people who may have paid into the VHI all their lives and suddenly they stop working and they have a big drop in income. One of the first things people would look at is whether they can maintain paying for health insurance in these circumstances because, as everybody knows, it is quite expensive. A situation then arises which nobody would want. People who had paid for health insurance all their lives find they cannot avail of it when they most need it. Demands will be placed on the health service with age-related chronic illnesses of diabetes, cancer and so on. There are many issues, not just in pensions, around this demographic which are not explored. There is a malign interaction between the insecurity of pensions and the increased cost of supporting people in old age. It will be a huge strategic challenge for the State.

I was asked about my book which is based on a PhD thesis. It was developed from that. Publishers never admit that anything is based on a thesis or it would not sell. I completed my thesis a number of years ago. I looked at the way in which a number of small open economies in Europe have managed European integration over a 25 year period and at how they ended up and what the lessons were for Ireland. Social investment is a key part in all of that. The book was to update it to the present day and it will be published at the end of February 2016.

Senator O'Donnell asked if I intend to stand for the Seanad.