Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I have discussed on a few occasions with his colleague, Deputy Bríd Smith. As Deputy Paul Murphy is aware, we have difficulties with the Bill. We put that on the record on the first night in the convention centre when we discussed it. During the Second Stage debate on the Industrial Relations (Provisions in Respect of Pension Entitlements of Retired Workers) Bill, I outlined the Department's difficulties and concerns with the Bill, as drafted, and why it could not be supported by the Government.

If a person is in receipt of an occupational pension, his or her relationship is with the trustees of the pension fund. The person no longer has an employment relationship with his or her former employer. As the Deputy will be aware, trustees have statutory and fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of all members of a fund. It is the responsibility of the Office of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman to act as an independent and impartial means of resolving complaints alleging financial loss occasioned by an act of maladministration and disputes of fact or law in respect of occupational pension schemes and personal retirement savings accounts.

It is important to note that access to the industrial relations machinery of the State, which is what the Bill seeks, including access to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, is governed by section 23 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990. This legislation provides that a worker means any person aged 15 years or over who has entered or works under a contract with an employer. A person in receipt of an occupational pension is not a worker and therefore cannot have a complaint dealt with by the Workplace Relations Commission. In March of this year, my Department launched a public consultation on the issue of retired workers' access to industrial relations and the submissions received are available to work through.

The reason for the long delay is that 18 months ago I committed to Deputy Bríd Smith, as the sponsor of the Bill, that while I did not think the proposed legislation could address the issue or that it was the right place to do it, we had simply tried to find a solution to give greater access. I met some of the groups involved in devising the legislation with the Deputy and committed to doing a public consultation to see if we could find a way to do this. We are not convinced that the Bill is the answer. I have been honest about that from day one. I am still not convinced. The public consultation is in place, and there have been submissions. It is open to Deputy Paul Murphy to work through them and to see if he wants to make changes to the legislation before he brings it to Committee Stage or to see if we could bring forward other solutions. For our part, we have consulted with other Departments to get their views on the submissions in order to see if we can assist in some way.

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