Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

The issue of the contributory pension for those who were in institutions has to be investigated. If they were employed and somebody got money for the labour they gave, that labour should have been covered under social insurance stamps back in the day, or PRSI. If companies in this country had the use of slave labour from these institutions and the institutions received money for it, then we have to find a way to enhance their social insurance contributions and provide the contributory pension they would be legally entitled to had they been working in decent, fair employment. Maybe it does not come under the scope of the Bill, but it has to be investigated and I will share with the Minister's office the name of the company I have today. We need to see what other companies in the State profited from the slave labour of people in these institutions. This probably goes beyond mother and baby homes to industrial schools and other places people were incarcerated. I am horrified by it and I think the Minister would be equally horrified. We have to see if there is a way to make the companies that had that labour pay social insurance contributions for pensions.