Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection

The Pensions Authority: Chairperson Designate

1:00 pm

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I have several points to make about what Mr. Begg said. Perhaps he did not understand the point about being a member of the board of the Central Bank. In essence, the point is that he signed off on financial stability reports, particularly in the period 2003 to 2007 when the Central Bank allowed the banks to borrow 50% of GDP, loan it out and fuel the property bubble. We know that as a result of these financial stability reports, many pensioners were encouraged to buy shares in the banks and that many of them lost their livelihoods.

I find it strange that Mr. Begg categorised some of the comments made about his appointment as hostile abuse. To be honest, that is a gross exaggeration.

I am wondering how Mr. Begg could not possibly understand how people who have seen their retirement livelihoods decimated, most particularly in a scheme in which Mr. Begg’s organisation had a very direct role, would be upset that he has been appointed to his current role.

Mr. Begg said I was vitriolic. I do not accept that. He said I made some cowardly remarks under Dáil privilege. I would like to know what those remarks were. He said my remarks were unfair. I am sure he did not like them even though they were not personal and certainly not intended to be such. They were not untrue. If Mr. Begg believes they are, I would like him to specify why point by point, after which I will answer him on those points.

Much time has been spent on the IASS because it is directly relevant to Mr. Begg's most recent appointment in terms of his experience. He justified his role by referring to the scale of the deficit involved in the scheme and the strain costs imposed through management decisions to let people go. It is a fact that, during the time in question, Mr. Begg was on the board of the company that stood over these decisions. Deputy Ryan is actually correct in that it was not a case of an anomaly in the pension scheme; it was an absolute fact that the clause in the pension scheme was used to entice people to sell their jobs and take retirement to lower the costs of the company. Mr. Begg was on the board of the company at the time.

There was a problem in that there were multiple schemes of this kind over the years. It was not a case of just one redundancy scheme; there were multiple schemes throughout Aer Lingus's history. The problem is that it is the pensioners and members of the scheme who have paid the price for this debacle. I appreciate that Mr. Begg can say an effort was made to try to share the pain, but the companies involved did not share it. They did not put in enough money to undo the poor decision-making in which they engaged. Unlike Waterford Glass, these are highly profitable companies that had the money to put in.

I am wondering about this because Mr. Begg made a couple of points that were not really accurate or did not describe the full picture. I was not just talking about deferred members but also about the existing retired members. They comprise two separate groups who were prevented from sitting at the negotiating table. While it is true that ICTU engaged with the deferred group, there was no engagement with the retired group, which was organised and represented by RASA, in particular. While it is true that extra money was made available for defrayal and to compensate the deferred members a little — I do not know whether this is the result of Mr. Begg's input behind the scenes or the work of the pensions committee — Mr. Begg skipped over the fact that no moneys were allocated to compensate the existing retired members, who are the ones seeing €500,000 going out of their collective wage packet every month. They got nothing. While it is true that these groups were outside the Labour Court mechanism, and therefore in a difficult position, the question I am asking Mr. Begg, the former head of ICTU, is what the union did do to alter these circumstances and give the workers a voice and a mechanism, for now and the future?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.