Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 79 of this Bill amends the Pensions Act 1990, which means it is directly relevant to pensioners and deferred entitlements. I have proposed amendments Nos. 5 and 6 to instruct the commission being established under this Bill "not later than six months after establishment day [to] issue a report detailing options to introduce a mechanism". I am asking the commission to look at the rights of pensioners, retired employees and deferred pensioners. This legislation seeks "to make provision as respects the resolution, mediation and adjudication of disputes and complaints relating to contraventions of, or entitlements under, certain enactments". Surely pensions and defined benefit schemes are entitlements under any kind of working relationship. Retired employees and people on deferred schemes who paid substantial moneys into schemes on the basis that they would receive certain benefits have had those benefits pulled out from under them subsequent to them retiring from the scheme. This has happened without the people in question having any input. When we raised this matter on Committee Stage, we were informed that we could make amendments under the industrial relations (amendment) Bill, which I absolutely intend to do. Given that section 79 of this legislation amends the Pensions Act 1990, it directly involves pensions legislation. The Title of the Bill, which we will vote on here today, refers to "entitlements under, certain enactments governing the employment relationship between employers and employees". A pension is a very basic entitlement of any kind of employment.

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