Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I understood the Bill was to contain a larger pensions section to deal with the deprioritising of annuitants or pensions in payment. That would have dealt with the issue raised by Senator David Cullinane about people in receipt of pensions and in a scheme that was underfunded. Workers contributing to a scheme are the last ones to know, as is the case with retained benefit annuitants who have left their money in the scheme but who are no longer working for the company and not yet retired. I understand the Department did considerable work to deal with that complex issue and I am sure there are people on both sides of this argument. Does the Minister propose to introduce further pension legislation in the short term to deal with the issue which I understood was originally to have been dealt with in this Bill? The Government will need to review this area. It will be considerably more complex because there are very serious issues involved for people who are retired and might be 75 or 80 years old and unable to earn further income. Deprioritising would result in significant decreases in their private pension payments.

The Government is considering introducing legislation providing for the winding down of underfunded defined benefit pension schemes, many of them commercial semi-State body schemes in companies such as Aer Lingus, many of whose workers live in the Minister's constituency and mine. I understood the Minister would introduce measures to cover private defined benefit schemes in the private and commercial semi-State sectors as part of the Bill. It is fine if this is not the case but I ask the Minister to tell me when it will be done. I proposed an amendment, which was ruled out of order for being a tax matter, which would have allowed early access to tax-free cash for funded schemes. My party intends to bring forward legislation in this regard. As Senators Byrne and Cullinane have stated, pensions form a huge part of the Minister's portfolio and it is the ticking timebomb with which we are all trying to deal. Will the Minister bring forward separate pensions legislation in this session or this year?