Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy.

No. 2288B, from Ms Fiona Ross, group chair of CIÉ, dated 19 December, provides information requested by the committee on the CIÉ pension scheme. I propose we note and publish the item. Is that agreed? Agreed. I flagged the item for discussion becuase this is a public body with a pension scheme and the population at large would think a pension scheme at CIÉ would be as safe as the Rock of Cashel, but it is not. We would have thought the pensioners' position would be secure and that they would be protected. The people who depend on what is termed the 1951 scheme, as is clarified in the letter from Ms Ross, have not received any increments, improvements or increases in payments since 2008.

Helpfully, in respect of the state the scheme is in, she has outlined the equities, bonds, properties, cash alternatives, the value of the scheme's assets and liabilities and the current value of the underfunding of the scheme, which is €15 million, but this is a scheme that has a current value of €2.54 billion, which is substantial. The value of the assets is €2.163 billon, so it is substantial. It looks as though that gap in the underfunding of the scheme is narrowing. I do not want to trivialise it but the €15 million figure is relatively small in terms of what we are talking about here. Meanwhile, these pensioners are caught in a very precarious position.

Ms Ross went on to clarify that the majority of CIÉ pensioners who come in under the 1951 scheme do not have a State pension, so they are caught in an especially difficult position. I have dealt with a couple of them personally and made representations for a couple of them. The scheme is not providing for their needs. Everybody else in the country, including pensioners and low-paid workers, has received a number of increases since 2008. These people are outliers and they are the exception.

I propose we write to the Minister for Transport to seek his views on this. Between the Government and the board of CIÉ, something has to give on this. It cannot be that people who have only a CIÉ pension, sometimes amounting to only a couple of hundred euro a week or a little more, have not received increases over the years. We have been in a cost-of-living crisis over the past three years, with Covid and the Ukraine war. The price of a loaf of bread has increased since 2008 a number of times and that is not to mention other goods. The cost of even the bare essentials of life has tripled or quadrupled in some cases and we cannot leave these people hanging. I propose we write to the Minister for Transport to seek his views on it. Is that agreed? Agreed.