Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

From day one, I was very unhappy about how the Bill was being brought through the Houses. As it is a Bill dealing with the Shannon Group merger, the pensions issue should have been dealt with separately in a separate Bill. We should have been able to deal with it on its own because it has such far-reaching consequences for many people, many of whom invested heavily during the years.

The Minister has mentioned that many people do not realise they will not receive a full pension and, in many cases, will end up with a figure of only 50% or 60%. Anyone who invests in a pension scheme believes he or she will receive exactly what he or she is told he or she will get. In his response the Minister answered the question I put about a person with a deferred pension after three or four years or even sooner. He indicated he or she could end up losing half of his or her pension pot.

People have been hard done by and many good amendments have been brought forward. I am opposed to section 34 and believe we need to look at this issue more comprehensively and separately to dealing with a merger. We need to debate it more thoroughly. It was wrong to include it in the Bill.

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