Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very complicated and serious issue. I remind Senator O'Brien that the Irish airlines superannuation scheme is a private pension fund which finds itself in significant difficulty. As the Minister said, the scheme has a substantial deficit of between €700 million and €750 million and that had to be addressed.

The view of the expert panel established to help resolve the IASS difficulties is that the funding proposals represented the best possible outcome that can be achieved and that if this final opportunity to resolve the very protracted and diverse dispute was not grasped now, the situation facing the IASS members would deteriorate further. The view that this course of action is in the overall best interests of the members of the IASS has been confirmed to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, by the trustees. The Minister is conscious of the difficulties that the funding proposals will cause for many members. However, what is the alternative? The unfortunate fact is that if the Minister had not signed the commencement order the risks that would have arisen for all members, the companies and the wider economy in the event of a failure of this solution are even greater.

I refer again to the fact that the deficit is between €700 million and €750 million at present. This simply cannot be ignored. Employers have proposed making a total contribution of over €260 million with the aim of resolving the IASS difficulties. This includes €60 million for deferred members, an increase from €40 million, as a result of the expert panel process.

The Minister has received criticism from certain quarters, including Senator Darragh O'Brien, for signing the commencement order. This is despite the fact that he was specifically requested to do so by the trustees. Furthermore, it also ignores the potential disastrous consequences that would have arisen. Do people really believe it would have been a responsible course of action for the Minister not to sign the order, knowing that such an action would have resulted in a fund that has 15,000 members and a deficit of between €700 million and €750 million finding itself in an unknown situation? The situation would have been worse for all concerned.

It is a private pension fund. Senator O'Brien said that this had not happened elsewhere, but how many people had private pensions that were written off when this country's economy hit rock bottom?