Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. He is a Minister for whom I have huge regard. Of all the Ministers in government, he is certainly doing an exceptionally good job. On this particular issue, I find myself in agreement with my colleagues on the other side of the House. Let us look at the scenario as it is. Many of the people on these deferred pensions agreed to retire early and have their pensions deferred on the simple and clear understanding that they would have a pension of a certain figure. Everyone in life has expectations. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not work. In this particular case, one is dealing with clear discrimination between people on pensions and people on deferred pensions. I have no problem whatsoever in seeing pensions reduced in size but what is good for one should be good for the other. The people who find themselves in a deferred pension situation are being totally blackguarded. I think the unions only woke up to this at a late stage. Effective negotiation should have happened but did not happen. It should be righted. We have a responsibility to err on the side of natural justice and to be fair to people. This is clearly unfair.

The one thing Government has a responsibility to do is to be equal and give equity and fairness. It is not really the Minister's fault because he inherited it but he should try to come up with a creative way of resolving it. If it means that the DAA and Aer Lingus have to put their hands in their pockets and come up with money because of the absolute mess made of the scheme in the first place by the trustees of the time, so be it. If they have to put their hands in their pockets and put in another €50 million or €100 million in order to give these people fair play, that should be done.