Ms Fiona Ross:

We were hopeful that the members of the 1951 scheme would see the value of the Labour Court recommendation and vote in favour of it. CIE made a contribution of €32 million to the pension scheme in 2019. We committed to providing €320 million over the next ten years for that scheme. The changes proposed by the Labour Court are modest and are well within the scope of changes implemented under reforms to other State pension schemes in the past.

At the moment, employees of 1951 scheme pay in approximately 8% and the employer pays in 27%. It is a generous scheme. The changes recommended under the Labour Court are modest. If they were accepted, it would allow us to put a funding proposal to the Pensions Authority for the first time since 2017 and begin to regularise the situation. Then, to address the point made by a Deputy, we can look at how we can do a better job on the deficit in respect of how we allocate the assets on the asset side of the balance sheet.