John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

A pension is deferred pay and that is a fact of life. It belongs to that person. We are dealing with one section of the Bill which relates to a former Minister and other people who might find themselves in that situation. Notwithstanding that, it behoves us to look at all sections to ensure that people who might miss out do not do so. It is wrong to point the finger at this person. I believe people should have all their entitlements and we should look at the issue because such people have worked for their pension and deferred their pay during their working life to make provision for when they retire or no longer do the job in question. In the future, if people have certain entitlements they should be given a letter from the Department to advise them to apply within a certain date or their circumstances could become very difficult.

We owe the press a service for pointing out this matter. The issue must be dealt with across the board to ensure equity because to prevent one person from getting a pension is wrong. It has given us an opportunity to ensure equity across the board. The Opposition has quite rightly spoken on behalf of a civil servant who lost certain rights but on Second Stage the Opposition did not even speak to the Bill. Not only that, a Senator who has spoken on behalf of civil servants today called certain civil servants liars on the last occasion he spoke. That took me by surprise because in the years I have been in this House, I have rarely heard anybody called a liar. It ill became the Member to call civil servants liars on that occasion.