Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 8, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: “(a) in section 11(5), by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b):

“(c) one shall be a person who is a participant in the scheme and who may, in the opinion of the Minister, appropriately represent the interests of participants.”,”

This is one that is particularly close to my heart, specifically the question of representation on boards for auto-enrolment and the allocation of moneys. When we think about pension entitlements more generally, one of the things that has come to my attention across the board, whether we are talking about occupational pensions or pension provision in private pensions, is the representation of people whose money it is and how that money is being allocated, how that money is being used and how the governance model is being implemented. There is a rightful question here around making sure that a participant in the auto-enrolment scheme is represented at the board level of automatic enrolment. That is what this amendment is about. This is not just the end of that. There is a big question around how we think about the pensions landscape more generally. People, for example, who have retired out of professions, who were in occupational pension schemes are often not represented in the occupational landscape and beyond that. This is my effort to try to at least rectify that in the case of auto-enrolment.