Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He was seen as evil by capitalists in promoting communism but he was a great soul, particularly in making the stand he did against the might and sometimes paranoid power of the United States. He made a sovereign stand in terms of humankind in not allowing one ideology, namely capitalism, to bully us into submission. We know people suffered as a result, but he did win the ideological war. A true assessment of him also requires us to praise his legacy in areas of health and education.

I ask the Leader to invite to the House the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, to discuss defined benefit pensions and the further difficulties on the horizon. I understand approximately 600,000 people, many of them ordinary workers, have paid into private pensions. This issue is getting press now because of the Independent News and Media workers, but ordinary workers in my town paid in all their lives, never thought they had any choice and were never advised there were any risks in paying in so much of their salaries. They thought they were providing for their futures and their retirements. Now, they are so out of pocket and the companies and employers who encouraged them are still trading away. Surely something must be done about this. If something is not done, as usual when people fall on hardship it will all fall back on the State and the taxpayer.

The Minister should come to the House. His predecessor, Deputy Joan Burton, looked at the issue but it was not resolved for the ordinary retired person who did not make the cut on time and did not get to retire when there was still money in the funds. These people are severely out of pocket.