Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I have not taken it over yet, so I am not fully briefed. Where we needed a specific amendment to deal with a particular case there is a stand-alone amendment; in other cases there is a recitation amendment. The difference in this instance arises for the very reason to which the Deputy alluded, namely, that there are residual responsibilities to the former civil servants who were employees of An Post. In the case of Eircom - formerly Telecom Éireann - a new fund, the Eircom No. 2 fund, was established to provide for the Exchequer pre-vesting the pension liability, and funding of €1.016 billion was provided for this purpose. As a result of differing actuarial estimates of the liability, the trustees of the new Eircom fund did not accept full liability. Final settlement was made in 1999. As a result, there is an understanding that the Exchequer retains a liability should the moneys provided in the No. 2 fund prove insufficient to meet the cost of the full pension liability in respect of service given by employees pre-vesting. In short, when Eircom was privatised the trustees wanted an assurance that should the pension fund that was set up not prove robust enough to meet the earned liabilities that there would be a contingent liability in place.

See this speech in context