Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I noticed in Deputy Dooley’s original comments that he said he agreed with the position of the Pensions Board that the solution put forward by the Labour Court was not acceptable. That will come as a surprise to many of the workers in Aer Lingus, the DAA and some of the pensioners, many of whom share my view that the recommendations made by the Labour Court would have resulted in a fairer outcome by which they would have had security about their pensions.

Any proposal to amend legislation on pensions would not be under my remit. Pensions and the Pensions Board are under the remit of the Minister for Social Protection. Any change in legislation that affected this and other defined benefit schemes would need to come from her Department and not mine.

If the Deputy has specific proposals on how to resolve this particular issue without recourse to legislation, I would be interested in hearing them. It is worth pointing out that the Government's responsibility as a shareholder is not just to the employees and former employees of the company. The shareholding is held on behalf of everyone in the State. I must bear in mind the fact that any solution could devalue that shareholding in certain ways.

The next step is the meeting between the company and the trustees. I hope that it will lead to some modification of the proposals that would make them acceptable to the Pensions Board, but that is not a determination for me to make.

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