Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This House will recall that Waterford Glass closed at a time when its pension fund was underfunded. Many workers were in danger of losing their life savings. It is thanks to David Begg and others in the trade union movement and the work of Kieran Mulvey, as mediator in the case, that the workers in Waterford Glass secured their rightful incomes into the future.

This House will be aware that I appointed David Begg in accordance with the guidelines for appointments to State boards, as agreed by the Government. The regulations provide that a Minister may appoint a chair of a board without asking for the help of PAS in circumstances where an individual is "evidently and objectively highly qualified".

In the past few days, I have heard suggestions that this provision is a get-out clause or some kind of aberration. It is nothing of the kind. It is a provision agreed by Government to provide for exactly the sort of circumstances which apply here. The chair of a State board must be a person of integrity. He or she must be someone with expertise and experience in the issues which the board has to deal with.

David Begg is all of these things. He is a totally trustworthy man, a person of great ability and experience, with years of public service. I wanted and expected someone with those qualities as chair of the Pensions Board. I confess I wanted someone who has years of experience of dealing with pensions from the perspective of workers but who also understands the bigger picture. I am extremely confident that David Begg will work closely with the Pensions Authority and other members of the board to build on the pension reforms made in recent years.

As we seek to improve levels of pension provision, the role of the authority will be key in the reform and simplification of the pensions landscape, in ensuring schemes operate efficiently and effectively and in providing a regulatory structure which gives pension savers confidence in the system. We need to improve awareness of the private and occupational pensions system, both to ensure that those with pensions know exactly how their pensions will work for them and to increase pensions coverage amongst those who currently have none. Mr. Begg will bring a strong focus on the needs of consumers, pension scheme members, pensioners and trustees.

Ministers are responsible to the House for their actions and David Begg's suitability for this role means I am more than happy to do so in this case. In addition, the individual concerned must appear before the relevant Dáil committee and I expect that David Begg will do so later this month.

It seems very odd that somebody like Deputy Halligan, who, generally, I have found to be a decent person and who came to me and privately championed a resolution for the Waterford Glass pension crisis which left thousands of workers in the company without their pensions, would not acknowledge that David Begg worked day and night to get a solution for Waterford and the work that was done with other people in the trade union movement in Waterford city.

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