Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I heard exactly what the Minister of State said earlier. He just repeated it. The essence of it is that the Department is going to explore the matter to see if we can help. That is great. Some 18 months after this was brought very firmly to his attention, the Minister of State has indicated that the Department must see if there is anything it can do. The Minister of State indicated that the consultation process has taken place. Does he accept that there is a fundamental problem here, and that it is fundamentally unjust that workers have had their pension schemes raided, both by the Government and by private sector employers and that deals done have had profound impacts on retired workers at a vulnerable stage of their lives, on which they had no prior consultation and no ability to impact? Does he accept that that is a fundamental problem?

The Minister of State makes the point that, as the law stands, retired workers cannot go to the WRC, but we get to make the law in this place. It is not a defence to use the phrase "as the law stands". That is precisely the point of amending the law, to say that retired workers should have access. Pensions are deferred wages and retired workers should have access to the industrial relations machinery in terms of being able to go to the WRC. It does not affect other industrial relations machinery; it simply says that they should have a voice in any proposed change that impacts on them.

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