Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When the State sold Irish Life for €1.3 billion recently, it also secured a windfall profit of €114 million from the quarterly profits of that company. That €114 million would be sufficient to close the deficit in the Permanent TSB pension schemes and allow the workers, including former workers, to secure their pensions. It should be within the control of the Minister, as practically the sole shareholder, to instruct the management of the company to make the money available to the pension schemes. Failing that, he has a responsibility to instruct management to continue to pay into the pension schemes while the issues to which he referred are being resolved through the Labour Court and the Minister for Social Protection's pensions Bill. At least, the workers, including former workers, would not be closed out completely from whatever system and solution were put in place.

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