Management of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) will be called before an Oireachtas committee to explain a decision to terminate an employees' pension scheme without notifying staff.
The CRC board decided to terminate the Irish Pensions Trust scheme for 47 of its 290 employees on May 18th without advance notice to staff.
The scheme has a €2 million deficit with assets of €28.5 million. The CRC provides a range of services for people with disabilities.
TDs have raised the issue in the Dáil and Minister of State for Health Finian McGrath said the case raised “serious questions of financial corporate governance”.
He said that until last week there had been no contact by the CRC with the HSE since the organisation’s actuarial review began, although “both knew the problem existed”. The HSE and CRC are now in talks about finding a “viable solution”
The CRC had already been warned that any pay or pension proposals had first to be submitted to the HSE, but it stopped contributions without consultation.
Labour Party TD Willie Penrose said workers' rights cannot be eliminated "with the stroke of a pen".
He said employees had doubled their contribution from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of their wages and that was accepted by the Pensions Board in February 2012.
Nobody had been admitted to the scheme since 2002 and it also had about 50 deferred and 50 retired members involved.
Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan said employees had been paying into the scheme for many years but had now been told they would have no pension.
She said that if the employer’s contribution was paid through HSE funding, there were accountability issues to be addressed.
Independents 4 Change TD Clare Daly said that in 2014 the CRC's actuary Mercer declared the funding proposal was on track to meet the minimum standard and she asked why it was suddenly closed down last month.
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Sean Fleming confirmed the CRC would appear before an Oireachtas committee. There would be discussions on the appropriate committee, most likely the Social Protection committee which deals with pensions.
