Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming to the House at short notice to discuss this important issue. We are debating the IASS pensions in a week when the Waterford Crystal pension scheme issue has finally been resolved after a great deal of work. I have a strong connection with that and I welcome it. I pay tribute to the Unite union, Deputy Ciara Conway and others who worked so hard to resolve that matter with the Tánaiste.

We are all conscious of the difficult, even impossible, situation for the deferred IASS pensioners. We have all received e-mails from them and many of us have engaged in correspondence with them. They are understandably very angry about their situation.

Senator Quinn has acknowledged fairly that this is essentially a legacy problem. It has been years and indeed decades in the making. Listening to the Minister, one wonders how we got to this position and how this was allowed to happen. Clearly, as the Minister said, this EGM is the result of four years of complex negotiations but the problems stem from before four years ago.