Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Since the Green Paper on pensions was published in October 2007, the Government has been progressing policy in this area. We have also responded to meet the immediate difficulties facing employees, especially those in defined benefit schemes, who saw both their companies and pension schemes facing difficult situations. The collapse in equity values and the economic situation combined to create severe difficulties for people who saw significant reductions in their potential benefits as a result.

The Government moved to protect people's entitlements through measures announced last December and the recent legislation passed in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009. These include the establishment of a pensions insolvency payment scheme, a reordering of wind-up priorities, provision for restructuring of pension benefits and stronger regulation with regard to remittance of pension contributions. Where decisions have been required to protect people's entitlements, the Government has moved quickly to assist pension scheme members. We have also been engaged in discussions with the social partners on key issues, including pensions.

The Government is aware that the wide and long-term pensions policy issues require a comprehensive and co-ordinated response. Following the conclusion of the successful consultation process last year, we have been considering several options to address the challenges facing our pensions system and which were raised in the Green Paper process. These issues relate to social welfare pensions, the sustainability of our pension system generally, the adequacy of current provision, and other complex issues around regulation, public sector pensions and retirement age.

As I have previously said in this House, it is the intention of the Government to deal with all of these issues. Over the past year, the economic environment has changed considerably and we need to ensure any decisions we make in the pensions area are robust enough to withstand new and unprecedented challenges. It is entirely appropriate that the Government takes the time to arrive at sound decisions about the future of our pension system, given the potential of such decisions to impact significantly on this and future generations. Our objective is a system which will deliver an adequate retirement income for all which is, at the same time, affordable and sustainable for the State and for those who sponsor and provide pension schemes.

The Government has responded quickly to the severe difficulties facing defined benefit schemes. We will continue to discuss further reform options for inclusion in the national pensions framework and I expect that this will be published this year as announced in the partnership talks.

See this speech in context