Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will be supporting this motion. It is a shame on this and previous Governments, as Deputy Brady has outlined, that this has dragged on for so many years. It is absolutely appalling that it has been let get to this situation. I do not think there is any other category of workers in the public or private sector that would be treated as contemptuously as this in respect of its pension rights. The Minister of State has adverted to the community and voluntary sector generally. There are obviously key differences in that the direct paymaster for these schemes is the State. The Minister of State has to recognise that these are people who have given years and years of work to their communities and to their projects. I submit that very many of these people could have found much better paid employment but decided not to on the basis of their commitment to the projects and what they are involved in. We are leaving them in a situation in which many of them will find it very hard to make ends meet at the point of retirement and may consider their options in the future. It is vitally important that this is addressed early. It is important that those who have retired in recent years are redressed and that those who are retiring in the next two or three years are not forgotten. They may have difficulty in building up stamps.

Before I finish, it is worth saying that this comes in the context of the view which I and many others have, which is that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection does not believe in CE anymore and that it is undermining community employment. The Department has lost sight of CE's original purpose and wants to hive it off to things like JobPath and Tús and not to have it on its books any longer. This pensions issue is directly related to that agenda. To sum up, these people have been treated shamelessly. It is time to bring that to an end and to resolve this issue.

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