Mr. John Nugent:

I certainly do. It is in my written submission. First, I was glad to see the support the Bill has received from all the contributors to the public consultation. I was certainly heartened to see that SIPTU has given support to the workers on this particular issue. It increases the substantial support that is there now for this Bill, not only from the retired workers but also from SIPTU supporting it on behalf of the active members of the scheme. There is a fairness to be sorted out here.

I think the IBEC submission was the only negative submission to the public consultation process. I want to refer the committee to a particular sentence in it which sums up the IBEC position. It states that once an employee retires or leaves the employment, the employer no longer budgets for persons external to the business, nor should they have to, nor do these employers take part in any further benefit negotiations as they have no consideration to offer. How appalling is it for an organisation essentially to say to retired workers that once they go out that door, they have no more rights whatsoever? They have no relation to the sponsoring employer. It is absolutely appalling.