Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do not know what "brought into the conversation” means. I asked the Minister of State to explain what was happening clearly. I received a letter stating that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, had been asked by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to consider the Bill. When we met him, the Minister of State told me and the retired workers clearly that he did not have a rational objection to the core principle of the Bill. Neither in the Dáil nor at the committee was the Government able to answer compelling cases made by retired workers for this Bill. In the two years since the Bill was debated, the Government has not produced a single alternative proposal as it said it would. We held a public consultation that overwhelmingly favoured the Bill passing into law, yet nothing was done. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, met the workers and promised to produce a proposal, but nothing has been done for two years essentially. The Government is listening to the employer organisations and senior civil servants, who have advised it to stonewall and kick to touch, and nothing is being done. All the while, back bench Government Deputies who are being lobbied on this matter tell retired workers’ representatives and the 500,000 people they represent that they agree with the Bill’s principle. Will the Minister of State please explain this?

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