Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Pension funds in many companies throughout the country are either insolvent or seriously underfunded. In my own city, Waterford Crystal is in a precarious position. Workers who have paid their pension contributions for 20 and 30 years are being told there is not a penny for them at the end of that time. That is a disgrace. It is criminal that pension funds should be allowed go in such circumstances. This matter was raised on several occasions in the previous Seanad by a colleague of mine, Senator Sheila Terry, who spoke on pensions on several occasions. It is a matter that has been flagged for many years but the Government failed to act in the area of pensions. I ask that the Minister should come into this House and outline to us what she intends doing about the underfunding of pension funds. It is disgraceful that people who have been in employment for over 30 years and who have paid all their contributions are being told that there is not a penny available for their retirement. That should not happen.

I join colleagues in calling for a debate on the Middle East. I condemned Hamas for its indiscriminate shelling of Israel on many occasions but "disproportionate" is not a strong enough word to describe the Israeli response to the butchery of women and children which we saw on our television screens.

I attended a Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting, to which Senator Daly referred also, at which I was glad to hear the Minister for Foreign Affairs reprimand one of his own colleagues for calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador because he believed, and rightly so, that all avenues of diplomacy should be kept open. I join those who expressed the wish that the appointment of George Mitchell as an envoy to the Middle East will bear fruit and that a process will arise that will bring peace to that much troubled land.