David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Senator Maurice Cummins made a very passionate contribution on the plight of the former Waterford Crystal workers. He spoke about the injustice visited upon hundreds of former workers who had to take the State to court to get their pension entitlements. He expressed the hope the High Court case would be heard as soon as possible and mentioned that it might be heard next week. He said he hoped there would be a positive outcome for the former workers. It is important that they receive their payments as soon as possible. They took a case to the High Court which referred the issues in the case to the European Court of Justice which found in favour of the workers on all counts. However, as the Minister knows, the former Waterford Crystal workers are still waiting for their money. They should get their proper entitlements as soon as possible.

One of the fears of the workers is that there is every possibility that the court case could be deferred again. I hope that does not happen, but if it does, I ask the Minister to negotiate with the trade union Unite which is representing the workers to make sure they are paid at least the 50% of the money to which we know they are entitled and not have this issue dragging on in the courts for months, if not years, to come. I very much hope the outcome of the court case will be quick, decisive and positive and that the workers will get their money. However, we know the nature of courts and things do not always work out in the way one hopes. If a positive resolution is not arrived at next week, I hope the Minister will assist the workers. I heard her speak on local radio in Waterford recently and she empathised with the workers and acknowledged that they had taken a court case and won. She recognised the fact that an injustice had been done. Senator Cummins Maurice has rightly pointed out that a number of former workers have died and that we do not want to see a situation where more workers will die before justice is done. This is a very emotive issue for people in Waterford, the former workers in particular. There is a moral and political responsibility on the Government to make sure justice is done and the workers get their money as soon as possible.

On the Bill before us, I sit somewhere between the two Fianna Fáil contributors, in that I do not believe it goes far enough, but it is an improvement. The Bill lists six priorities to govern the distribution of a fund in the event of a scheme wind-up. Sinn Féin proposes eight priorities. Recognising that some scheme members are not eligible for the State pension or a contributory pension, our proposal sets out to ensure a minimum safety net for all scheme members through, first, purchasing the requisite contributions record for a State pension for all scheme members who did not have such a record. Second, we would protect those on low pensions and with low pension expectations. Third, we would look at the age-related portion of current and former members' benefits. On the fourth, fifth and sixth priorities, we would continue the distribution back and forth across the retirement divide in an income-linked manner. This means that once we had ensured existing pensioners had a full State pension of €12,000, plus his or her full occupational pension benefit of up to €12,000, we would immediately turn to the protection of future pensioners. This has to be about protection for existing, as well as future, pensioners. This would be a fairer distribution than the one proposed by the Government in the Bill.

The Bill will bring about an improvement in the current position which can leave workers who have accrued future pension entitlements with little or nothing. Anything which improves this must be welcomed. However, my party genuinely believes the Bill still does not get the balance right. Fundamental inequalities have been left unaddressed. In order to protect high-end, gold-plated pensions, workers approaching retirement age will remain woefully unprotected. In October 2011 the Minister suggested a more equitable style of pension reform and I find it amazing that after two years in government she seems to have been won over by her Fine Gael colleagues and is now just tinkering at the edges instead of implementing fundamental reforms. The Government is now stating the pension levy will be used to fund shortfalls in a case of double insolvency. However, as the levy has already been allocated to meet the Exchequer deficit, is this a case of double accounting? That is one of the practices that got us into the mess we are in. I give some credit to the Government for improving the situation, but I do not believe the Bill goes far enough in achieving the appropriate balance.

I appeal to the Minister to do what she can to help those former Waterford Crystal workers who should be protected.