Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Go raibh maith agat. This amendment proposes the insertion of a new section to provide that where a scheme member, which means an existing or future public servant, is dismissed or resigns as a consequence of having lost the confidence of the Government, which would be an extreme and important case, he or she shall not benefit from the pension scheme in respect of the position so held. Some very high profile people, whom I will not name, have exited the public service, and if they had a conscience they would accept that they resigned under a cloud for not having done the job they were paid handsomely to do. There should be a sanction in the Bill that would apply to people who drew salaries for a long number of years and were paid to do a job, but patently did not do it. This is not a broad issue. I have narrowed the amendment to apply to a couple of people who resign as a consequence of having lost the confidence of the Government or are dismissed for this reason. If a person has been a public servant for 30 years, he or she will have built up pension entitlements. If, in the final years of a career, such a person lost the confidence of the Government in his or her ability to do the job, there should be a provision to deal with the work they were doing at the time of retirement or dismissal. The 30 years of good service prior to taking up the final post must be taken into account for pension purposes and this pension cannot be touched. For example, nobody had confidence in the ability of the Financial Regulator to do his job-----

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