Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister had the opportunity to remedy this injustice in budget 2018.

This work could have been done before. I raised it with the then Minister and now Taoiseach and with the previous Taoiseach. I also raised at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight the question of what could be done to remedy this, but it did not seem that the Minister for Finance was very forthcoming. As such, I ask again whether the Minister has the support of the Minister for Finance and whether she expects the support of his Department to remedy the injustice done to this cohort of women workers. Is finance available in the 2018 budget to make the changes which should be made and which have worked out overall at a basic €10 million a year? It was done purely and precisely on the grounds of budget cutting which the Government in office from 2011 embarked on, continuing the policies of Fianna Fáil. That has happened over eight or ten years. Will the Minister provide the House with a guarantee that we will see the full restoration of this and an end to this injustice next week?

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