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Occupational Pensions

The easiest way to agree with my hon. Friend is to cite examples of companies that operated in different jurisdictions so that members of schemes were treated differently. One example is that of IFI Richardsons, which operated in the Irish Republic and in Northern Ireland. The company went insolvent and the pension scheme was wound up, but the workers in the Republic of Ireland had their full pension protected by Irish law. The workers in the same company in Northern Ireland lost their whole pensions. So it is the framework of protection that is fundamental, not whether a leaflet said this or that. The leaflet reflected what was believed about the framework of protection that had been established.