Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It used to be said that death and taxes were the two certainties in life. It is very clear that is there is now another certainty. Thankfully, people are growing older and living longer and healthier lives. There is no doubt that as a result, people need to put pension plans in place to ensure they have adequate finance in place when they are not working, when they are older or when they cannot work to ensure they can support themselves to a reasonable living standard. It is more important than ever for public and private pension schemes to be robust.

It is very clear from what Deputy Willie O'Dea said that legislation needs to be brought forward to address the situation where a profitable company can close down a defined benefit pension scheme while the scheme is in deficit. This is to the detriment of existing and deferred pensioners, of whom there are 650,000 in the country at present. In the last Dáil, Fine Gael had a very poor record in regard to private pensions and the last Government passed legislation to allow the Government to raid the private pensions of citizens. Now, it is refusing to act to protect other private pensioners.

We have seen very profitable companies wind up defined benefit pension schemes, which has left workers with nothing. This situation is unacceptable and needs to be addressed and it can be addressed through the Bill Deputy Willie O'Dea has brought forward. The 2014 OECD report highlighted there was a greater need for protection for beneficiaries. The report stated: "Another weakness of Irish legislation is that it allows healthy sponsors to ‘walk away’ from DB pension plans, shutting them down, without creating a high-priority debt on the employer, as is the case for instance in the United Kingdom." There is no doubt defined benefit pension schemes have been in a funding crisis for a number of years and some 30% of schemes in Ireland are reported not to meet the funding standard. It is our view that profitable firms should not be allowed to walk away from a defined benefit scheme.

A completely different set of priority rules will apply on the wind-up of a defined benefit scheme where the employer and the scheme are both insolvent, that is, where there is a double insolvency. In this scenario, all beneficiaries of the scheme are to receive 50% of their benefits, including post-retirement pension increases.

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