Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Some manners, please. In 1994, an agreement was reached between the CIÉ employees and the company to amalgamate five pension schemes, thereby allowing it to remove a potential €73 million pension deficit from its book. In return, employees were given certain assurances, the first of which was that the board of CIÉ would guarantee the solvency of the pension schemes each year. The second commitment given was that there would be regular post-retirement increases, but no specific rate was given.

The company stuck to those commitments until 2009 when it failed to provide sufficient funding to ensure the solvency of the schemes in that year and in the following years. This was against the advice tendered by the company's actuary. Since then, the board of CIÉ has underfunded the pension scheme to the tune of around €80 million. The assurance given by the Minister states: "In every year there shall be a contribution from the board to a fund of such sum as the board after consulting the actuary determines to be necessary to support and maintain the solvency of the fund." Despite this, neither the Government nor the Minister has intervened to ensure that CIÉ adheres to that order. A blind eye has been turned to it.

Not only has the company underfunded the pension scheme, by extension it has jeopardised the solvency of both CIÉ pension scheme funds. This issue was raised by the NBRU and SIPTU. Yesterday, I proposed to the Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport that we invite the unions in to discuss these issues with the committee. It has agreed to do that. We will hear the unions' side of the story this month.

I ask the Tánaiste that to remember that we are talking about people's pensions. Last year, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, was very unhappy with the prospect of being a lot poorer because a large part of his pension from Independent News & Media was being cut. He blasted the proposals at that time as very unfair and unreasonable. I sincerely hope he sees the seriousness of this issue for the thousands of workers in CIÉ.

The Government and Department have serious questions to answer. Once again, it comes back to accountability and oversight pure and simple. It is also an issue which has been known about by successive Ministers for Transport, Tourism and Sport, one of whom is the current Taoiseach and another of whom is the Minister for Finance. It is not an issue the Government can ignore the because CIÉ has a legal obligation to adhere to the Minister's directive.

When was the underfunding of the pension scheme brought to the attention of the Minister? What did he do about it? Why was CIÉ allowed to disregard a ministerial directive? Will the Minister commit to an independent investigation into the governance of the two CIÉ pension schemes?

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