Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

What makes us all very suspicious is that the scheme has €28.5 million in assets and €30.5 million in liabilities, which is a €2 million deficit. It could easily be made up. The Minister of State is no doubt aware that some schemes may have fallen into deficit due to various oscillation of equities and the bond market but these have all recovered. What is perplexing is that there was no consultation with staff to allow them to evaluate this issue and to consider whether to seek further advice by hiring their own actuary, paid for by CRC, to examine the situation and, indeed, whether they might contemplate the scheme remaining in existence by opting to either take reduced benefits or increase their contributions as they had already done to try to maintain existing benefits. It occurred within a couple of weeks of the receipt of the actuarial report. Pursuant to the Pensions Act 1990, it seems to me that the trustees would have had approximately nine months to submit a funding plan and it is clear that over a period of time, the scheme could be got back on track.

Given the section 38 funding, it is time the trustees and the management of the CRC were called before the new Joint Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform and the Committee of Public Accounts to explain why they acted in such a fast fashion. As Deputy Daly asked, why, given that an assurance was given on 24 March 2014 that the pension scheme was on track, did it collapse on 18 May 2016? I ask the Minister to reinstate the scheme as it was until those issues pertaining to the winding up of the scheme are addressed and investigated, including the roles of all the professionals involved at all levels in respect of the operation of the scheme.

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