Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In 1994, an agreement was reached between CIÉ employees and the company to amalgamate the five pension schemes, which allowed the group to remove a potential €73 million pension deficit from its books. In return, the employees were assured by the board of CIÉ that it would guarantee the solvency of the pension schemes each year. The company by and large stuck to that commitment right up until 2009 when it failed to provide sufficient funding to ensure the solvency of the schemes in that year and the following years right up to the present. Since then, the board of CIÉ has underfunded the pension scheme to the tune of €80 million. How can the Minister say it has complied with requirements under statutory obligations?

Will the Minister establish an independent investigation into the governance of both CIÉ pension schemes? Did he investigate as to why they ignored a ministerial directive? He has not directly answered that question.

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