Mr. John Nugent:

I am a vice chairman of the NFPA. I am well placed to speak on and support the Bill put forward by Deputy Smith on the rights of retired workers. I am a former director of the ESB and was for 12 years a permanent member of the ESB's joint industrial council, which dealt with industrial relations, IR, disputes, including pensions. I was president of the ESB Officers Association, which was the largest trade union in the ESB during my term of office. Those experiences have given me valuable insight into pensions from a corporate, trade union and IR procedures perspective and I can only conclude that the provisions of the Bill before the committee are long overdue and have the full support of the ISCP, NFPA, Age Action Ireland and other affiliates, representing hundreds of thousands of pensioners, many of whom are experiencing pension poverty for the first time. Why are they experiencing pension poverty? I contend it is because of the abuse of power by pension providers and trade unions to the exclusion of pension representation with equal rights at the negotiating table when pension issues are being negotiated. In my written submission, I have given three examples, namely, the governance of defined benefit, DB, schemes, industrial relations and minimum funding standard, MFS, negotiations. What is the common thread here? Two of the stakeholders are at the table and looking after their own sectional interests, to the exclusion of the other stakeholder, and negotiating arrangements that impact severely on retired workers. As I have only two minutes to make this presentation, I trust the committee will take on board the entirety of my submission. I am happy to answer any questions members may have.

I will conclude by making three points. The Pensions Authority, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, the Equality Tribunal are unable to provide procedures, conciliation, arbitration for disputes between pensioner representatives and pension providers. The status quo is unacceptable to present and future pensioners and will lead to further pensions poverty for members' constituents. This submission is non-partisan and affects all pensioner constituents of elected representatives and is open to amendments. A denial to pensioners of the same rights as trade union members of the same pension scheme is unacceptable and only empowers further the abuses conducted by pension providers.