Outside the gates of Leinster House today there are a couple of hundred retired ESB workers who for the past ten years have received no increase in their pensions. I know that the Taoiseach is familiar with the issue because I raised it this time last year when they protested, but nothing has changed. Retired workers from every other body in receipt of pensions have received an increase in recent years. This applies to contributory and non-contributory pensions and so on. The workers in question who worked for a semi-State company have received nothing. What plans does the Government have to introduce legislation to compel semi-State companies such as the ESB to respect their retired employees and pay them their increased pensions?

This is not the first time retired ESB personnel are outside the gates. They are respectable people who earned their pensions and have been blackguarded and let down. The Ministers have been asked before to try to recognise the great service to the State the people concerned gave in all weather conditions. One of the most essential and important services we have is a fully functional ESB network throughout the country. The workers in question did everything they could on bad nights, Christmas Day and at odd times to make sure the lights were always on.

It is only right that their work be recognised by ensuring they get what they require, namely, fair play.

I am familiar with this issue. Since this Government of Fine Gael and Independents came to office, we have increased the State pension by €15 per week and by €20 per week for those living alone as of January. However, this is a company pension fund. It may well be a State-owned enterprise but it is still a company pension fund. The way company funds work is that during the course of their working life, workers pay into the fund and so too does their employer and investments are made as well with that money. In order to pay an increase from any company pension fund, there has to be enough in the fund to do so. If trustees of a pension fund pay increases that cannot be funded, what happens in the end is that some people end up with no pension at all and we certainly could not have that happening.