Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy’s interest in this and her detailed knowledge, given the constituency she represents. I also know many in all three categories - workers, people whose pensions are deferred and pensioners - and I understand their huge concern about their retirement pension. The legislative changes I have brought forward are an attempt to ensure that as many defined benefit schemes as possible are put in a recovery position. In many cases this involves detailed negotiations and discussions. I believe that is possible. It may well be that once this period of extraordinary difficulty is over and we move further into recovery, renegotiated schemes will help the firms that gave rise to the schemes recover financially and have a stable future, which is extremely important, not just for the people who work in some of these companies but for the whole Irish economy. It is a very complex and challenging situation.

There have been discussions between the Departments of Social Protection and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. I will raise the issues again with the Minister. It is most important to get as many schemes as possible across the line satisfactorily, even if that is a very difficult negotiation.

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