Cullinane: Crystal workers cannot be ‘stonewalled’ by Department of Social Protection
August 23, 2014: Thousands of people turned out on Saturday afternoon for A Walk for Justice, in support of the Waterford Crystal Workers pensions. Photo: Joe Evans
Waterford Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane again criticised the Department of Social Protection over their policy towards members of the Waterford Crystal Pension Action Group (WCPAG).
Reports by the showed the state’s pension policy unit advised Minister Dara Calleary to decline a meeting with Deputy Cullinane and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald relating to WCPAG.
Minister Calleary was told that a meeting “may give credence to the view that there is a case for State involvement and may falsely raise expectations.”
Members of WCPAG have campaigned for state compensation following their redundancy in the early 1990s.
Affected workers claim they were ill-informed about their pension, and had to withdraw their personal contributions from the company’s depleted pension scheme. Workers claim they should have been presented with three options.
Because of the singular option presented, affected workers were unable to claim anything from the Government compensation fund that was introduced when Waterford Crystal became insolvent in 2009.
Deputy Cullinane called on Waterford Fianna Fáil TD and Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health, Mary Butler, to pressure Minister Calleary into making a U-turn.
“This is not about Sinn Féin. This is about former workers and their families in Waterford who are being stonewalled by the Department of Social Protection,” Deputy Cullinane said.
“The Minister is responsible for the actions of his Department. If senior officials are advising the Minister to dodge this issue, then the Minister needs to reject that advice and do the right thing.
“This is a Fianna Fáil Minister. Junior Minister Mary Butler is the Fianna Fáil TD for Waterford. Is she standing over this? Is she okay with seeing her own constituents pushed aside and ignored?
“The Minister needs to stop the stonewalling and start delivering the justice these workers have waited far too long to see.”
Deputy Cullinane said he wrote to Minister Calleary asking for the Dáil record to be corrected in relation to previous comments made by then-Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty in 2017.
He said he is yet to receive a response from the minister.
Ms Doherty had said in the Dáil chambers that Crystal workers had been presented with option forms for their redundancies.
The Department of Social Protection do not hold records of any option forms presented to Crystal workers.
Ms Doherty’s answer was in response to a parliamentary question from Minister Butler, who has also called for the Dáil record to be corrected.
