Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today I was told by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection that we have very generous pension schemes. We do not have generous pension schemes. All that anybody who is here for a short period of time can expect to get is about €8,000 or €9,000, which is hardly generous. One thing that needs to be looked at is access to additional voluntary contributions, in particular, last-minute additional voluntary contributions. These should be available to city and county councillors, many of whom are finding that because of the change that took place from class K to class S, they are not in a reckonable year for welfare once they have lost their seat. Not everybody in a council has two jobs and for quite a number of them, it is their only employment. We need to have an open and honest debate about this. What are we afraid of? I could not care less what people think about me arguing for our terms and conditions of employment. We are employees of this State like anybody, albeit that we are called "officers" of the State.