I seek an update on the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act 2017. The Pensions Authority wrote to the Committee of Public Accounts this morning to say that in 2009, it told CIÉ that its workers' pension schemes were no longer in compliance with statutory instruments. Despite that, the Pensions Authority allowed CIÉ to ignore its statutory requirements and gave it permission to leave the workers' pension schemes in deficit. Does the Pensions Authority have the power to overrule a statutory instrument? Surely only a ministerial order can do that. Is CIÉ deliberately underfunding the defined pensions schemes in order that the Pensions Authority can declare it insolvent? Does this forthcoming Bill give the Pensions Authority greater powers to protect defined pension schemes?

My understanding is that the Bill became an Act in 2017 but, considering the importance of the issue Deputy Munster has raised, I will ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, to revert to her directly.