Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste and I are anxious to seek to address this issue, and she and I are familiar with the circumstances Deputy Clare Daly has outlined. It was felt that the appropriate way to address concerns in the future would be through the Pensions Authority, where people would be provided with the opportunity to make submissions to the authority in the type of circumstances outlined by Deputy Daly. Previously, the views of the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court were canvassed as to the possibility of using the industrial relations institutions of the State to address some of these issues. They responded with a couple of fundamental points. The view was taken, on foot of meetings between officials from the Departments of Social Protection and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, that it was clear that the solution to addressing the concerns of retired and deferred members of pension schemes with regard to representation rights might best be achieved in the context of the pensions legislative framework. The Tánaiste has made provisions for this in terms of the details I outlined earlier. In future, this will be done through a process with the Pensions Authority rather than in the industrial relations arena.

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