Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will use six or seven minutes and my colleagues can share the remainder.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Social Welfare Bill 2014.

I also welcome the positive aspects of the legislation. This is an important debate as we are dealing directly with people's lives, incomes and ability to survive. We must look carefully to the future and ensure all promised pensions are secure. It is important that we do not let down or ignore any legislative protection for deferred pension scheme members, particularly senior deferred members of the Irish airlines superannuation, IAS, scheme. I totally support the IAS scheme pensioners. I will not stand by and let what is happening happen. It is a grave injustice against the deferred IAS scheme pensioners. I urge the Government to think again and row back on the grave injustice. All the pensioners want is parity of treatment.

I will give examples of real cases because we are talking about social welfare and pensions. These issues highlight the grave injustice that has been perpetrated on the IAS scheme pensioners. A constituent of mine wrote to me today and stated:

We are well aware you are under pressure with the issue of the Irish Water Board but this is not my concern. My concern is far more critical and will have far longer and more savage repercussions for as long as I live. This will be a bigger headache for you than the Water Board if you do not act to introduce [and support an] amendment.

Incidentally, I support it. My correspondence also states:

I worked for 36.5 years with Aer Rianta/DAA, leaving in April 2010 with a proposed pension deferred of €35,640 due on 1st Oct 2016. I was led to believe that my pension would be UN-coordinated (Page 4 of my DAA Letter of Offer 2010) with my State OAP under the scheme rules. Which means I could have expected [in the region of] €35,640+€11,487=€47,127.

[However,] DAA 2010 letter of offer proposed that at NRD €35,640+€11,487=€47,127.

Effect of coordination, €35.640-€11,487=€24,153.

Restructured pension will now reduce to €19,419.

Coordination will apply from NRD normal retiring date of 1^stOct 2016 despite the State OAP not applying until 25^thJuly 2017.

10 months on an income of €19,419 a huge drop from what I signed up for in 2010. I'm sure the Dept who looked over and approved all financial dealings of DAA were aware of the offer being made.

Please also note that a) on my death, my spouse will be expected to live on 50% of my proposed savagely reduced pension and b) while civil servants and active employees of Aer Lingus and the DAA will be entitled to jobseekers' benefit until they reach State pension age at 66, 67 or 68, my pension will have the State pension proportion deducted from the date I will receive my first IASS payment.

The correspondence urges me to vote in favour of the amendment and right a glaring wrong. The constituent refers to his family:

Will you have me and my family in your thoughts next January when the Aer Lingus share price takes off and shareholders not even resident in this country make a fortune at the expense of the Deferred Members? Will you be one of the Members of this Oireachtas who stood by and let this happen?

I raise this tonight because I fully support the IAS scheme pensioners. There are many living across my constituency of Dublin North-Central and across the north side. I plead with the Government to have some common sense and end this grave injustice.

The Bill proposes a number of changes to a range of social welfare payments and requirements, including changes to the habitual residence condition and the family income supplement. It seeks to transpose certain provisions of Directive 2010/41/EU and also proposes amendments to the Pensions Act 1990 in respect of notifying members of a defined benefit pension scheme whereby scheme benefits are being restructured under section 50 of the 1990 Act. That is essentially what the legislation is about. I mentioned pensions because they are referred to in the Bill. It reminds me of another constituent who wrote to me yesterday. He stated:

When I left Aer Lingus after 44 years of service, it was on the basis that my pension would be €44,682 PA. I was informed by the Trustees that this figure has been revised down to €26,411. As I'm classed as a Deferred Pensioner I nave no representation at all to challenge this savage cut. This reduction is over 40%.

This is a grave injustice. This gentleman pleads with me to support him. It is important that I highlight this in this important debate. We are talking about social welfare and the welfare of our constituents, including pensioners.

Having already asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Minister for Social Protection, I now ask the Minister of State, whom I know listens to sensible proposals and understands a grave injustice when it is made known to him, to do his best to resolve the issue arising from the proposed cut of 60% to the pension entitlements of deferred members by the trustees of the IAS scheme by amending the Pensions Act 2009 in order to regroup deferred pensioners with pensioners in payment, as was the case up to 2009, through provisions of the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2013. Will the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport sign the ministerial order and enforce the requirement in the 2014 legislation?

I welcome this opportunity and urge the Minister of State to listen to the IAS scheme pensioners. They deserve justice and are entitled not to have their rate cut by 60%. They deserve to be looked after in the future.

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