James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As spokesman for jobs in the Seanad, I welcome the fact that Sparkasse Bank is attending a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. It has made an interesting proposal that I believe could be of great value to many SMEs.

Like Senator Kieran O'Donnell, I wish to raise the issue of pensions. It is a fact that 23,000 women are disadvantaged by the current situation, which the Minister for Finance has described as "bonkers". This legislation, as members will know, was only introduced in 2012. It penalises women who left work to rear children, to care for vulnerable people and to care for the elderly. I am struck by the fact that even at a time when we had no money in this country, and I was in the thick of it, we found money to compensate women who had been damaged by symphysiotomy. We sought to address the Magdalen laundries issue. When I was Minister for Health, we put in place a commission of inquiry into mother and baby homes. All of these issues affect women. Our historical treatment of women has been poor. We now have a situation where we continue to discriminate against women, in their pensions, who care for our children - the future of this nation.

It has been mentioned that it will take €290 million to correct this matter but it is not available. I think the Minister has done a very good job in terms of the budget. There will be issues around stamp duty on farms, and that is for sure. As many as 23,000 women have been disadvantaged and my calculation leads me to believe that it will cost the Exchequer €34.5 million per annum to fix the discrepancy from this point on, as opposed to €290 million retrospectively. I ask the Leader to call upon the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Minister for Finance to come to this House and give us some indication of a plan or roadmap that will start addressing this clear injustice to women.

I shall finish by saying that an injustice one does not know about is one thing. The injustice that is current and we do know about, and would appear to continue to discriminate against women in terms of the extra €5 that we have produced for pensioners in their weekly income, is another matter. It seems to be in doubt that these women will get the full amount of the increase. This is a current injustice that we have created in our time and one that we must address if we are true republicans in a republic of equal opportunity and treatment.