Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is an issue. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection is very good at filibustering when she wants to. What she will do is read out a script and go on and on but she will not answer the specific questions that were put to her. Then, when I get a chance to respond to the Tánaiste, she is gone. I know she is the Tánaiste and she may have other engagements. The Minister of State, Deputy Humphreys, who is now in the House, being from Dublin will have a fair idea what is being done to this cohort of people. We are giving the Government an opportunity to rectify it. The Minister of State's party leader does not seem to want to know, which is fine. However, it will not stop here.
I was baffled, listening to the Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, nearly trying to take credit for what happened with the Waterford Crystal workers. The Waterford Crystal workers had to go to Europe. All the Government did was accept a judgment in Europe and it put an extra levy on other defined benefit schemes to pay money that the European Court said was due, and rightly so, to the members of Waterford Crystal. She did not do anything about it. Let us be straight about this. There is no point in her coming in here to say: "Isn't the Government great? Look what we have done for Waterford Crystal." It did nothing for Waterford Crystal. By the way, when it had a chance to do something, it brought about single insolvencies. Waterford Crystal was double insolvent and single insolvent. Does the House know how much money Aer Lingus has on reserve? It has nearly €800 million in cash. Now, it is being given an added bonus of nearly €400 million and perhaps up to €500 million that it has been able to walk away from.
I want to move towards a vote on these recommendations. I thank Senator Conway for his positive remarks in this regard and all my colleagues have been supportive because they see this as an injustice. I did not politicise this at the start but, unfortunately, the Minister did so in her response to me. I am not surprised because she does that a lot and it is part of her modus operandi, which is fine. As I said to the Tánaiste, no one is going to touch her pension of €60,000, €70,000, €80,000 or whatever she gets after the next general election. There are people in this case on €20,000 who are losing €8,000. That is worth talking about. This is not the end and we will continue to fight in this regard for the rights of these workers. I guarantee my colleagues that, in two or three years time, this will happen to a raft of other pension arrangements, given the legislation the Government has passed in the Seanad and the Dáil.