Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)

I add my support to the agriculture industry and associated businesses. Senator O'Loughlin mentioned her local saddlery business associated with agriculture and Senator O'Reilly voiced his support for shifting nitrogen targets and the nitrate derogation. I support both Senators.

Something I know would be close to the Cathaoirleach's heart is the pension entitlements of pensioners. The Cathaoirleach is very proactive and I ask him not to forget me when the Minister comes to the House, particularly in relation to auto-enrolment and pensions. The situation is slightly up in the air. Councillors' entitlements under the new auto-enrolment system do not seem to have been totally clarified. As we have talked about before, under the Moorhead report, there was to be a review of councillors' pensions. The previous Minister of State, and quite a good one he was, Deputy Brophy, was due to upgrade and have the Moorhead report looked at in relation to pensions. There is to be a review, which was built in. We are nearly a year late. It would be worthwhile, through the Cathaoirleach and the Leader, to bring the Minister to the House for a discussion on this issue.

As we know, everybody else is entitled to participate in auto-enrolment, which is coming up on 1 March, I think. It is being rolled out, to use another pun, in case Senators did not get the first couple of puns. It is going to take effect. There are a lot of anomalies for councillors. They will only get paid for their first 20 years, no matter how long they as a councillor, when they receive their gratuity and lump sum at the end of their term, after the age of 50, of course. Lots of councillors serve for 30 years. We are trying to encourage councillors to continue because so many of them start young. In Westmeath, a lot of councillors who started recently are quite young, in their 20s and 30s. We are not giving them any incentive. If they start at 25 and serve for 20 years, they will be 45 years of age, which is still young. Councillors have a lot of experience and we should try to encourage them to stay in the council. Instead, they will get no further pension. They do not get anything else at present. The bit of gratuity they get is not going to increase any more after 20 years. There is no incentive to stay on as a councillor after the 20 years are done. We have to address this. In fairness to previous Ministers, Deputies Peter Burke and Darragh O'Brien, they brought in provisions for councillors and looked at their pay and conditions. The Moorhead report was to be reviewed after a year and harder commitments were to be made in relation to pensions. With auto-enrolment coming up in March, we have an ideal opportunity to piggyback on that and address the anomaly of the gratuity, which has to be addressed. I would appreciate if the Cathaoirleach and Leader would talk to the Minister and get him into the House to thrash out these important issues.