Government contradictions over Waterford Crystal issue
In new developments this week, former Waterford Crystal workers have received a letter from the Department of Social Protection outlining the government's position.
In the early nineties, over 400 Waterford Crystal employees were misinformed about their future pension entitlements and were resultingly left without a pension.
The workers claim that they were offered only one pension option at the time – the return of their pension contributions.
They were entitled to receive three options contained on an option form.
The workers assert that none of the more than 400 employees were ever offered these forms, and that no evidence of the form’s existence has been proven in the decades since.
In new developments this week, former Crystal workers have received a letter from the Department of Social Protection outlining the government's position.
Meanwhile, Minister Mary Butler has said that an official parliamentary answer she received on the matter in 2017 was incorrect.
The new letter from the Department of Social Protection states that the government have never stated that workers signed the forms.
“There has never been any instance on the State’s part that such forms were signed," it reads.
This statement has prompted renewed scrutiny of a parliamentary answer, which was made by former Minister for Social Protection, Regina Doherty, in 2017.
Her statement, which was in response to a parliamentary question from Mary Butler, said: “Former workers who left the service of Waterford Crystal in the early 1990s received their full pension entitlements.”
Speaking to the , former Crystal worker Walter Croke said that this statement should be corrected on official Dáil records, and that it was contradictory to the statements contained within the recent letter.
“We feel the official Dáil record should be corrected to reflect the fact that none of the Ministers have ever seen signed option forms and they have never been able to produce them. What was said by then government Minister Regina Doherty contradicts the letter.
"She said in 2017 that the workers had been given the option forms, and now we have this letter saying there were no forms signed."
Speaking on Déise Today last week, Minister Mary Butler said that the answer provided by Regina Doherty in 2017 was in fact incorrect.
“Regina Doherty, who was the Minister at the time, said the workers were offered their options, and they weren’t.”
The recently circulated letter further states that the Attorney General advised the government that there was no basis on which the State could be obliged to compensate the former workers.
It further states: “The matter is concluded from the perspective of the Department of Social Protection.”
Minister Mary Butler said that the Attorney General’s ruling will further complicate the saga.
“I don’t want to be delivering difficult news, but it’s difficult to see where we go politically now,” she said.
The workers' fight for their pensions continues.
More on this story is available HERE
