Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To reiterate Deputy Kenny's point, none of us should be here. More importantly, hard-working CE supervisors should not have to take time away from their families to travel up to the Dáil to listen to this debate. As all the Deputies who have spoken from the Opposition benches have made clear, we are here because we have a Labour Court recommendation which explicitly sets out what the Government should be doing. It is not just that people should have gotten this by right, but particularly after funding was allocated, although it was not spent, from 2009, people took up positions as CE supervisors and assistant supervisors with the reasonable expectation that those pension claims would be met. More importantly, if this issue is not resolved CE supervisors and assistant supervisors will face a real future of financial hardship, and in some cases poverty, in retirement because of the failure of the Government.

The Minister of State is absolutely wrong in the figures he is quoting. The actual cost of resolving this issue according to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, earlier this year is approximately €6 million annually and a one-off payment of approximately €19.2 million. That is the cost. In the context of the enlarged fiscal space which is available to Government next year, there is simply no reason not to resolve this issue. It is disingenuous to quote the figures that were mentioned.

Not only is it disappointing that neither of the lead Ministers is here, but the fact that the Government seems to be digging its heels in is deeply worrying. If this motion passes when we vote on it on Thursday, which I expect it will, the Government needs to listen very clearly. It needs to go back to Cabinet and agree to meet the unions and the CE supervisors as a matter of urgency in order to resolve the issue. In conclusion, not only should the Government resolve this, but it should start to reverse the decade long assault on community schemes because they do huge work in communities and with people in desperate need of those schemes. That would be a good place to start.

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