Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to highlight, as Minister for Finance, I am precluded from intervening in commercial and operational decisions in any particular bank, even one in which the State has a shareholding. Decisions in this regard are the sole responsibility of the board and management of the banks, which must be run on an independent and commercial basis. This independence is protected by a Relationship Framework which is a legally binding document that cannot be changed unilaterally. This framework, which is publicly available, was insisted upon by the European Commission to protect competition in the Irish market.

Notwithstanding the above, officials in my Department have been in contact with the bank referred to in the question and it has provided the below response:

"The introduction of the Pensions Act 1990, offered protection for employees who left an employer’s service prior to retirement in respect of their accrued pension benefits under the employer’s pension scheme. However, this statutory protection applies to employees who have served a minimum period of qualifying service after the introduction of the Pensions Act 1990. An employee who left their employer’s service prior to the introduction of the Pensions Act 1990 would not have qualified for this statutory protection. Their benefits would have been determined by the rules of their employer’s pension scheme."