Averil Power (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this amendment. The Minister of State is aware that this issue has been debated on several occasions in the House in recent years. This is his final opportunity to do the right thing by members of the IAS pension scheme. It is absolutely horrific that people who worked for years with Aer Lingus, the Dublin Airport Authority and other aspects of the airlines at Dublin Airport have endured savage cuts to their pensions. Deferred members were enticed to leave jobs with the authority and the airline on the basis of early retirement schemes and on foot of a promise that they would receive a good defined benefit pension later on and enjoy a level of certainty regarding their entitlements. Just before they reached pension age, many of them discovered they had only a fraction of the pension they had been led to believe they were entitled to. That is a shocking and dreadful situation in which to leave people and it is incredibly unfair. As Senator Darragh O'Brien stated, it is also out of touch with international standards in this area. The OECD recommended that all of its member states should ensure that pension funds cannot be shut down unless they are 90% funded. That is the standard in other countries.

As I have done on previous occasions, I would make the distinction between single and double insolvency arrangements. If both the scheme and the company are insolvent and the company does not have the money to put into the scheme, then that is fair enough. It is unfortunate for any employee to find himself or herself in a situation where the company for which he or she works has gone bust. However, Aer Lingus is a profitable company and it has been able to walk away from honouring the entitlements which were promised over many years to its staff under the IAS scheme. That is outrageous. These are people who were forced to be part of the scheme, who made contributions from their wages for many years and who then had their pension entitlements removed at the last minute.

I have pleaded before with the Minister of State on this issue to please do the right thing. Of all the cuts that have been introduced in the past few years, those made to these people's pensions are absolutely shocking. There is no justification for those cuts. While it has been airline staff who have been hit so far, a great many pensioners will find themselves in trouble in years to come if companies see this as a precedent which allows them to walk away from their obligations. I am sure that is not the legacy the Minister of State would wish to leave behind after his time in government. As matters stand, that is how it will be. I again plead with him to do the right thing at this final stage and to accept the amendment.