Seanad debates

Wednesday, 31 October 2007

Markets in Financial Instruments and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

1:00 pm

Photo of Liam TwomeyLiam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I asked the Minister of State to explain the motivation behind this proposal and to outline how this section found its way into the Bill. The Minister of State's comments about the finance Bill were right, but the provision relating to ministerial pensions could be included in the forthcoming social welfare Bill. Perhaps it would not sit easily with the Government to include in that Bill, which will probably provide for social welfare increases of €10 or €12, a measure facilitating the payment of a pension of €30,000 to a sitting Government Deputy who is earning more than €120,000 per annum. The Minister of State would probably find it very uncomfortable to slip a ministerial pension of this magnitude into a social welfare Bill.

We wish to examine the motivation behind this section of the Bill. I am sure there are many other anomalies with regard to pensions. I refer to a member of the Garda Síochána who was dismissed in 1973 but the superannuation payments changed in 1976. I am sure there are other members of the Garda Síochána who were somehow disadvantaged in the years to 1976. I am sure many members of the Garda Síochána have written to the Department of Finance over the past 31 years and would have received replies from various Ministers for Finance stating that the law could not be changed in favour of individuals.

I ask the Minister of State to provide some background information. I question whether this legislation was designed to be slotted in to deal with the case of one individual. I note that some Senators and some members of the Government are taking umbrage because their little scheme has been exposed so beautifully in the Irish Independent . We need to know how this provision found its way into this legislation. I can understand how some other provisions found their way into this Bill whose initial eight sections were increased to 17 sections. There is a significant issue with regard to sub-prime lending and mortgages and many other aspects of the legislation. Some Members on the Government side of the House are acting like they are the only ones with any expertise on legislative issues. I would be one of the first to admit and the first to acknowledge constructive criticism with regard to my knowledge. When this Bill was discussed in the House last week, Senator MacSharry was very quick to state that those of us on this side of the House had limited knowledge. I acknowledge that our knowledge was limited because these issues are being slipped into legislation and we are not being informed. I remind the House that the general public reading newspapers such as the Irish Independent regard us as a crowd of gougers looking after ourselves. We must ask for clarification when this is exposed.

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