Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For clarity, it is neither right nor fair to characterise the employers or companies as walking away from their responsibilities. The remaining employers in the scheme, DAA and Aer Lingus, have between them offered to put over €100 million into the scheme. It is not the case that they are walking away from their responsibilities. People are trying to find a solution to a pension scheme with a deficit of over €700 million, and regardless of Aer Lingus's profits last year or the paltry profits of the DAA, their profits would be wiped out for I do not how long if they were expected to come up with that sum of money. The DAA alone has a net debt of approximately €600 million. It is certainly not the case that the companies can bear the entire deficit. A compromise is required whereby the companies put in some money to shore up the scheme or create a new one, and the beneficiaries, whether deferred pensioners or active members, accept reduced benefits. That is the only way this will be solved and it is the way similar problems in direct benefit schemes have been solved. It is a shame that the matter was not resolved a long time ago.

We also should not forget those who have joined DAA in Shannon and Aer Lingus in recent years. This scheme has been closed to new entrants for quite some time, with the result that a considerable number of people working in the State airports and in Aer Lingus have no pension scheme. They are often forgotten in this debate. They have been working for a semi-State company in the case of DAA and a very successful company in the case of Aer Lingus but their only option is to set up their own personal private pension scheme or a PRSA. Part of the solution to this problem will be the establishment of a new sustainable scheme of which they can become members. There is too much keenness in this country to pull up the ladder on young people and new entrants. I want to ensure that whatever arises from this offers a solution to these individuals, about whom nobody seems to be speaking. It is interesting that we have debated the issue in this House for quite some time without anybody mentioning the hundreds or even thousands of relatively young people in their 20s, 30s or perhaps older who have no pension schemes.