Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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691. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to revisit the situation facing deferred members of the Irish Airlines (General Employees) Superannuation Scheme; the steps that have been taken to address this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45740/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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​The Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme (IASS) and its funding are primarily matters for the Trustee, the companies participating in the scheme, the scheme members and the Pensions Authority.

The funding solution adopted by the IASS Trustee was approved by the Pensions Authority and was implemented in December 2014 with the freezing of the scheme and reductions in benefits for active members, pensioners and deferred pensioners.  The IASS Trustee considered that those measures were in the best interest of the members of the IASS as a whole.  The funding solution also involved  the employers, daa and Aer Lingus, making funding of some €260m available outside the IASS into new defined contribution pension arrangements to help mitigate the effects of the Trustee proposal for active and deferred members.

I am conscious of the impact of the funding solution adopted by the IASS Trustee for many scheme members, including deferred members. However, I am satisfied that the decisions that have been made with regard to the IASS were taken with the overall best interests of members in mind.