Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Sherlock. I do understand his concern, which has been conveyed to me also by the trade union representatives through the LEEF subgroup on pensions. However, the proposed amendment cannot be incorporated into the AE Bill at this time as it is subject to ongoing legal advice. The preliminary legal opinion suggests that such a provision would be unconstitutional with regard to infringing the property rights on the right to earn a livelihood of employers.

I do understand the intent behind the amendment. Some worker representatives fear that the introduction of AE will lead to the levelling down or closure of existing occupational pension arrangements. However, I do believe that this will not materialise. My Department has found no evidence whatsoever that such a scenario has occurred following the implementation of an AE-type system in other jurisdictions. Indeed, despite significant concerns in the UK that AE would result in the levelling down of existing pension arrangements, as I said before, what came to pass was that many employers decided to improve their existing pension plans by contributing more than the minimum contribution rates. They saw such an offering as a benefit to aid the recruitment and retention of employees. I believe, and I hope, the same result will happen here in Ireland. We are in a competitive labour market and employers want to attract good staff, and in order to do that they have been upping their offering in terms of the occupational pensions they provide. They have improved their schemes. We are one of the last countries to come to the table in terms of auto-enrolment. As I said, the evidence is that employers have improved their schemes and membership has increased rather than decreased, so I do not think the amendment is necessary.