John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending in order to discuss this very complex issue, which is of concern to many people. We have seen the impact of the winding down of many defined benefit schemes on workers who have paid into them all of their working lives and have been unfairly left out on a limb. Some major and highly profitable businesses have wound down their defined benefit schemes. That is why this Bill is so important. Sinn Féin brought forward a Bill to make it illegal for profitable companies to wind down their defined benefit schemes. I will touch on some of those points.

I refer to the statement from Pension Equality. I welcome the group. When someone speaks from the heart and lays the facts before a committee, it is very powerful. It is hard to believe that it has been two years since the passing of the marriage equality referendum, which was very important day for the State. A serious anomaly has been left in place. If we are serious about equality, we need to recognise that it is more than a word. Rather, it involves action and everything which flows from that. This is something that needs to be addressed irrespective of the concerns of the Pensions Authority and whether it affects one person, 100 people or 2 million. It is fundamentally about equality. Mr. Kennedy referred to the low numbers of people involved. As I said, irrespective of whether it is one person or 1,000 people, equality is equality. Out of interest, does the Pensions Authority know the numbers involved?