Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister should let me finish and he will then have his opportunity. I wanted to point out that inconsistency. When this debate started initially around a new pension scheme and a single scheme, it would have made more sense to have a single scheme that encompassed those currently working in the service and new entrants. Logically, that would have been more equitable. It would have made a difficult piece or work all the more difficult but it would have been the way to proceed. The Minister chose not to do that, however. Time out of number, he chose to say that this is about new entrants. He has insisted on exceptions in respect of Members of the Oireachtas and the European Parliament, which I think is a bad move on the Minister's part but that is his chosen course. He has been very much wedded to this notion of new entrants entering into the pension scheme from day one. The Minister cannot have it both ways, however. This enabling clause flies in the face of his new entrants line and it also flies in the face of his refusal on retrospection concerning very large pension pots.

This provision should be removed. If there is a case to be made by the Minister independently for the application of CPI to current pension holders, he should make that case separately. Let us have that debate but it should not be inserted in this legislation. The amendment therefore seeks to strike it out.

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