Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the Minister will be able to kick this matter solely to the trustees. I am not sure whether he was ill-informed or deliberately misled on was what the position. The facts are that the Secretaries General of his Department and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation contacted the expert panel to ask it to engage in a process aimed at resolving some of the difficulties that had arisen. That process has allegedly started, but it has not involved the people who represent the majority of workers who have issues. The problem is twofold. Substantial changes are being proposed to the contracts of airport fire and police service workers who are all represented by SIPTU. They have not been involved in any process. Furthermore, even though we are dealing with one pensions scheme, IASS, involving two companies, Aer Lingus and the DAA, an entirely different set of assumptions prevails in respect of each. This meant that workers in the DAA who had rejected the proposed changes by a majority of 90% were faced with the prospect that a worker aged 53 years with seven years of service would receive a lump sum of €95,000 if he or she worked for Aer Lingus but only €65,000 if he or she worked for the DAA, even though he or she would be on higher pay in the latter. How could this be a realistic assumption for a pensions scheme covering workers in both companies? Clearly, one set of assumptions was wrong. This issue has to be addressed, but holding a gun to workers' heads is not the way to address it.

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