Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very concerned by the Minister of State's reply to questions on the impact of a possible settlement on the surviving partners of deceased members of the Waterford Crystal pensions scheme. He indicated that in such circumstances surviving family members would be covered by the terms of the scheme to which the member belonged. Most of the schemes provide 50% cover for a surviving spouse and orphans, where relevant. This is not good enough, given the delays caused by the lack of a Government response to this case. The impact of the Government's failure to respond to the Waterford Crystal case has been that where the member of the pensions scheme - generally the man in a family - has died, the surviving family members have lost out considerably in financial terms.

The Robins case which involved the United Kingdom and Ireland dates back more than seven years.

Before the judgment was issued, the UK authorities responded by introducing its own pension protection scheme at a generous level. The Irish State did not respond in a similar manner.

Not only did it not respond to the Robins case, it has dragged its heels. The previous Government did the same. The dragging of heels and the failure to provide pension protection has resulted in a situation whereby the families involved in Waterford Crystal have been denied not just the income they would have expected if the company had not become insolvent, but the protection and income they would have expected from the Government doing the right thing at the time. The Government has not done that and that has meant that all of the families affected by the Waterford Crystal insolvency have lost out very substantially in financial terms.

I am particularly concerned about families of retirees who have died since the closure of the factory. It is not acceptable for a Minister to say surviving spouses will be covered by whatever terms exist in whatever scheme into which their late spouses paid. They deserve compensation from the State because of its failure to respond to this. It is now several years since the Waterford Crystal employees started the case, and it has been fought every step of the way by the State.

Not only that, when a decision came from the Commercial Court to refer a number of points of law to the European Court of Justice, which the Waterford Crystal staff won hands-down, the State still made no offer. Things were delayed. Unfortunately, several retirees have died in the meantime. There is an obligation on the State to provide a level of compensation to the surviving families of those who died. The response of the Minister of State is wholly inadequate. I ask him to raise this issue with the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, in the interests of justice and fairness for the families who have lost out, not only in terms of the loss of life of their family members, but in financial terms, as a result of the failure of the Government to act more swiftly in this regard. There is a very strong moral, if not legal, obligation on the State to provide compensation accordingly.

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