Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I have one question, and it is directed to Ulster Bank. It relates to the management of the pensions of Ulster Bank staff. In recent days, I have learned about situations where female workers will leave Ulster Bank with lesser pensions than male counterparts of exactly the same grade and length of service. That is at odds with pension law in this country. It appears that what happened relates to the 1980s. Some were paying contributory pensions, typically men, while others were paying non-contributory pensions, typically women. The issue here is that there was a Pensions Act in 1990 which sought to eliminate the differences between male and female pension contributors. My understanding is that Ulster Bank took no action to correct the issues after the 1990 legislation. Staff today are weighing up the three options available to them, namely, early retirement, redundancy or taking a lump sum. There is a difference for women of a particular age among the staff who are weighing up their options relative to their male counterparts, in particular because the women workers do not have any death-in-service benefit relating to their pension.

This is a complicated question and I do not expect the witnesses to have the answer, but I would like the witnesses to state whether they are aware of the issue and, if so, what investigations or actions have been taken in response to a historical pension issue that is materialising now, if I could put it like that? If the witnesses are not aware of or have not been acting in respect of the issue, will they investigate it? It is important to say that this is not confined to one person. I am aware of a number of cases. One case went to the Pensions Authority some years ago in the case of a terminally ill female worker of Ulster Bank. Is Ulster Bank aware of the issue that I have set out and, if so, what is being done about it?