Any victories won by Waterford Glass workers were thanks to Unite not ICTU

My dear mother told us we would have to listen to thunder.

We surely heard a loud clap this week when the Tánaiste told the Dáil that “Mr Begg played a key role in ensuring the workers in Waterford Glass secured their incomes into the future”.

To my knowledge Mr Begg or his union played a minor part in securing Waterford Crystal workers pensions.

It was Unite who dragged the Government through the European Court of Justice to secure a landmark decision.

The Government has still failed to transpose the 1982 EU Directive which would prevent the financial hardship being endured by the majority of private sector pensioners.

When asked at a Labour party meeting in a Blanchardstown hotel last year, in the presence of Joan Burton, what had he done about the Aer Lingus pensions, Mr Begg said “it was complicated.”

How can a man who couldn’t protect pensions in a state company he was a director of be eminently qualified and the best man for the job of chairman of the Pensions Authority?

Michael Terry

College Grove

Castleknock

Dublin 15