Mr. Billy Hannigan:

Ultimately, in terms of looking at employers and the provision of defined benefit schemes, Deputy O'Dea is correct that there can be an incentive never to lose the opportunity of some crisis. It does not matter how temporary the crisis is, as a crisis, generally speaking, would not necessarily be visited on the shareholders of a company but rather the employees in a pension scheme. Any piece of legislation that provides a degree of protection to workers in such circumstances must be welcomed. With a defined benefit scheme, a person has with a degree of some certainty - insofar as we can have certainty over 30 or 40 years - to be able to plan for retirement and know what benefits he or she is likely to get when that person gets to 65 or whatever the provisions are in the pension scheme. In defined contribution schemes, as we know, the only certainty is what is put into the scheme. Workers have no idea what investment people are going to make with the money at the end of the day. Where defined benefit schemes operate, they need protection. This is particularly the case where an opportunity arises to take advantage of a crisis, no matter how temporary is that crisis.