Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to ask the Minister about the standards adopted regarding accounting for pensions in the accounts of businesses.

The Minister will be aware that the accounting standard dealing with pensions is extremely controversial in requiring a full liability provision. It has meant that many private sector pension funds have gone out of existence. I want to know if in the context of this change over the Minister or his Department has given any consideration to changing any of the accounting treatments in order to make provision for greater protection of defined benefit schemes in particular. The system of accounting has inevitably led to the demise of a vast number of pension funds in private firms, in fact, there have been many different treatments. In the case of Clerys, one thing that happened was the owners tried to rid themselves of pension liabilities. In this context, does the Minister or anyone in his Department have any proposals to address this? For people in the public sector or who are funded by the public sector, there is a system where people who are currently working are paying for the pensions of those who will retire in subsequent generations which means that the pensions are much more secure. The same applies to the social insurance system where current contributors pay towards the State retirement pensions of people who have retired.

Will any examination be carried out by the State of the implications particularly for pension funds which have caused enormous disruption in the way that they have been dealt with in the past. Will there be a review from a public interest point of view of how pensions are accounted for?