Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine and Members can deal with that at another time.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 73, motion No. 15, be taken today. The motion states, “That Seanad Éireann recommends that, should the Government proceed with the sale of the 25.1% stake in Aer Lingus, the monies received be used to reduce the savage cuts imposed on Aer Lingus Pension Scheme members." Members had a good debate on this the other day and at the time, Senator Bacik indicated her support for this type of mechanism. At the very least, if the Government has now decided by a vote in Dáil Éireann that the stake in Aer Lingus is to be sold, all the arguments that many Members made contrary to that are on the record of the House. I will not go over them as, unfortunately, the Government has made the decision against Members' wishes but that is as it is.

My point now is that the approximately €340 million for which the Government is selling this strategic State interest should be used to offset the savage cuts the Government has imposed on the pension scheme members in the airport. At the end of the day, this sale and the money the Government will receive could not have gone through without the cuts the Government made to the pension scheme. I refer to the 15,000 members, the deferred pensioners who were cut by up to 60%, long-service members whose pension benefits were torn asunder, the retired members, that is, people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have lost six weeks' pay and the 5,000 existing members who have been moved out of a good pension scheme unilaterally and thrown into an inferior scheme.

If the Government is to get €340 million, instead of using it in its connectivity fund, whatever the hell that is, or instead of putting it into a fund to use for its own preferment prior to the general election, adding it to its slush fund, the Government should give the money back to the people from whom it took it. The Government should give it back to the deferred pensioners, to the retired pensioners and to the members of the Irish aviation superannuation scheme, IAAS. As the Government should give such a commitment here, I seek to have this debated and I seek the Seanad's support for the motion I tabled in the week before the recess, namely, “That Seanad Éireann recommends that, should the Government proceed with the sale of the 25.1% stake in Aer Lingus, the monies received be used to reduce the savage cuts imposed on Aer Lingus Pension Scheme members." That is fair and would go some way towards rectifying a most grossly unfair situation that prevails in respect of the first pension scheme in the history of the State for which any Government introduced legislation to reduce members' entitlements. Consequently, I ask the Leader to accept that motion today.