Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As a Dub, I would also like to extend my welcome to Mr. Boylan. He has ruined many Septembers for me over the years, and many Junes, too.

Tomorrow the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, will come to the House to discuss the situation with Irish Water, so I do not propose to go into it in great detail today. However, people will note that there is a motion on the Order Paper, which I intend to move tomorrow and I assume the Government will accept it. This will deal with one facet of the problem, in that people are as concerned as I am that this utility could and will be privatised further down the road. I thank the Leader for arranging that and I will deal with the issues directly with the Minister tomorrow. Suffice to say the whole situation is a complete mess and the Government must get a handle on it, but I will wait until tomorrow to discuss that.

Has the Leader any indication of when the social welfare Bill will come to this House? I assume it will be some time in November. Could he give a commitment in advance, as he did last year, that this Bill will not in any way be rushed through this House and will not be guillotined, as has been done previous occasions? The Leader's track record on this is good but I put the House and particularly the Government Members on notice that my party and others intend to table a series of amendments on a number of issues, particularly on the area of pensions.

I have mentioned time and again the plight of the Irish aviation superannuation scheme members, especially the deferred members. I wish to put on the record of the House in respect of the retired members of the scheme that if people in any other job had proposals to reduce their pensions by up to 60% - pensions that were promised to them - it would be of concern to any group of people. There is a group of 15,000 people here who are going to have their pension benefits and those promises ripped asunder.

The pension levy introduced by the Government took €2 billion out of private pension funds of people in the State. The irony is not lost on the members of the retired aviation staff association, RASA, that only two weeks ago the Aer Lingus Irish aviation superannuation scheme, which is in such difficulty, had to pay in excess of €11 million to the Government by way of a pension levy. That brings the total paid out of this scheme, which is in a very difficult position, to €28 million. The people who are carrying the burden of this €28 million are the retired members. The proposals put forward by the so-called expert panel that reports to Government on the restructuring of this scheme mean these retired members will have carry a levy of 2.53% on their pension fund into the future. That is on top of a proposed reduction of six weeks' pay, whereby from 1 January, people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have worked their whole lives in the airport will have six weeks' pay taken from them as well as carrying the full burden of the pension levy brought in by the Government. They will be paying an additional levy of 2.53% on top a reduction of six weeks' pay.