Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Imagine that, a Cheann Comhairle. This is regarding the CIÉ superannuation scheme of 1951 and the impact on 2,279 CIÉ salaried workers. A number of these people visited our group in Leinster House 2000 a couple of weeks ago, one of them being Christy Murphy from Tralee, who was an inspector in his time and managed school transport for CIÉ, and there were a number of ladies with him who had very important roles in their time. They operated as inspectors, supervisors or managers and an awful lot of responsibility was placed on their shoulders. They had to be loyal and fair to all those they dealt with and maintain the highest standards and efficiencies in their operations.

Current beneficiaries of the scheme who were employed pre-1995 were compelled to contribute PRSI at the class D rate and, therefore, unlike class A contributors, they have no entitlement to the contributory State pension nor its associated benefits, such as the fuel allowance, the living alone allowance or any of the other allowances you would get if you were on a State pension. The contributory State pension payment has increased by approximately €54 per week since 2008. If the payment is sanctioned, such increases will be paid to pensioners from the end of July. No increase has been granted by the CIÉ board to pensions and payments since 2008, more than 15 years ago.

The salaries of current CIÉ company workers have increased since 2016 but there has been no increase for these honest, hard-working people who gave their loyalty to CIÉ. The Government is the principal shareholder in CIÉ. I know the Minister of State does not work at the Department in question but I am relying on him to bring the case forward to the line Minister, put it on the table and ask him to deal with it. Seventy-four of these people are women who now find themselves paid a lower pension than they would be paid if they were on the contributory State pension. Not to mind the pensions they were entitled to when they retired, they are not getting that at all.

Legal proceedings were held in the High Court in May 2022 regarding CIÉ's obligations on funding the scheme. Judgment is awaited and the case is due for mention in January 2024. God almighty, these people are now in their 80s. I am not blaming the Minister of State at all, but keeping them from the middle of May of last year until January next year just to have the case mentioned is not fair play. These people deserve much better than that, and I again appeal to the Minister of State about this. It involves more than 2,200 people in their 80s. Is it possible that these people would get their pensions increased at the same rate at which the State pension has been increased since 2008?

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