Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is something incredibly rotten around this.

It has the potential to put other CRC controversies into the shade. Overnight, unilaterally and without warning, a pension scheme was shut down that loyal staff members had paid into all their working lives. Subsequent to that decision, those staff members have been unable to meet the members of the board of the CRC who have no problem going to a gala dinner in the Burlington tonight. It is absolutely reprehensible.

As other Deputies have said, the CRC plan in 2011, as with other defined benefits schemes, did not meet the minimum funding standard requirements. On 24 March 2014, the CRC's actuary, Mercer, declared that the funding proposal was on track to meet the minimum standard by next year. If the CRC plan was on track in 2014, why was it closed down in such a hurry by the CRC board with effect from 18 May 2016? Can the Minister answer that? What went wrong between March 2014 and May 2016? Did Mercer give poor financial advice which led to the scheme closing given that contributions increased and a de-risking strategy was put in place?

There are conflicts of interests at the heart of this. Mercer appears on all sides of the equation in this. The company provides administration, actuarial services and consultancy advice to the CRC meanwhile the so-called independent trustee of the plan is the Irish Pension Trust, which is owned by Mercer. It is an absolutely clear-cut case of a conflict of interest. Not only that, it has completely been missed that it appears an integrated, defined-benefit pension scheme with a contribution rate of 35% could not support the continuance of entitlements under the plan. How in God's name can that be? It does not add up. The scheme must be reinstated until such time as comprehensive investigations around this are held. I urge the Minister to secure that.

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