Joe O'Toole (Independent)

They heeded the advice of the Pensions Board and people like me. As president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, I approached the then Minister, the late Séamus Brennan, to offer my support for legislation making it compulsory for all workers to pay into a pension fund. I made the same suggestion in this House on several occasions. I have always taken a clear stance on this issue. If somebody is responsible for mismanaging, losing or fraudulently uttering funds from the Waterford Crystal pension fund, he or she deserves to be jailed. However, I make clear that there is no certainty that this is what happened. It may simply be the case that the global decline in equities has adversely impacted the fund to a great extent. I would like to know which scenario is the correct one.

There must be a State guarantee for private sector pension funds.