Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He accepted the first four points of our motion but that is just a pat on the back and the Minister of State knows that a pat on the back does not put butter on the spuds for pensioners, and there is no pension in what the Government is accepting. The Minister of State speaks of employers being able to opt out of future pension reforms, but on this occasion the Government has opted out. It has opted out of giving pensions to its own employees, in spite of a recommendation of the independent Labour Court which we are all supposed to respect and adhere to.

I took up this cause in November 2015 and I thank Deputies O'Dea and Butler for their support. I was approached by a very good friend and was asked to meet his colleagues who were CE supervisors. CE supervisors and assistant supervisors have a unique opportunity to redirect individuals' futures and to shape communities for the better, which they do every single day throughout the country. Since that time, 35 or 40 have been leaving every year without a pension, left to the vagaries of our State pension service in spite of 25 or 30 years of service to AnCO, FÁS or whatever it may have been called. They gave 25 or 30 years of service to their local communities and ensured better opportunities for individuals who have, ironically, gone on to get better pension provisions than those who gave them the opportunities in the first place.

This Government needs to wake up to the potential of CE and to support it and embrace it. It needs to finish its relationship with JobPath and put the money it put into JobPath into the men and women in the Visitors' Gallery and those others around the country who are watching. It needs to wake up and support the Labour Court. For a Government to ignore a recommendation of the Labour Court undermines our industrial relations machinery, because every time employers ignore the Labour Court, they will point to the Government ignoring this ruling.

I spoke about my meeting in summer 2015. The gentleman who asked me to that meeting was a supervisor of many years' standing and was in great health at that time. He passed away very suddenly, months later, without a pension or support for his family and leaving behind a community bereft. For his sake, I am going to keep up this fight and I am going to do it for the sake of each man and woman in the Gallery who have travelled from the places the length and breadth of the country. I know at least one person who would have preferred to watch the Liverpool match tonight. They won 5-2, by the way. I ask the Minister of State for a little bit more Klopp and little less rubbish. I ask that the Government deliver on its promise and on the Labour Court recommendation for the sake of these people.

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