Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I join Senator Quinn in calling for a debate on pensions. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs is willing to facilitate that debate and we should discuss the report of the Pensions Board at an early date. Before considering mandatory pensions, which Senator Quinn appears to favour, many other actions must be taken. Many workers in this country have mandatory pensions. They had to join company pension schemes as a condition of their employment. Now, on the cusp of retirement, many are finding that their pensions are not worth the paper they are written on. Alongside mandatory pensions we must put measures in place to ensure that the pensions industry will deliver adequate pensions to subscribers. There should be no compulsion with regard to joining pension schemes.

Many women are coming up to or are in retirement and have no pension, including farmers' wives, women assisting relatives and women who had to stay at home because of the marriage bar. Under the qualified adult payment system, women who are entitled to a pension are not given one. The pension is given to their husbands instead. That is an area that merits examination. Women must be given their pensions in their own right and not treated as second class citizens.