Jack you are wrong on that last one. The trustees are 100% independent and are responsible only to the scheme members. Under trust law the trustees must act in the best interest of the beneficiaries. In fact if you ask many in DAA/EI management about the trustees you will get a rant so don't pretend the are employer puppets!
http://www.pensionsboard.ie/en/LifeC...9.shortcut.pdf
In addition, when people bladder on about solutions, don't forget that there have been 3/4 different proposals over the last 3 years and none have been taken up. Management and trustees have both tried to find a solution but members/unions did not take up the offers. One of the solutions would have actually fixed the whole problem but the speed of (in)action was such that the market opportunity passed (don't forget a lot of this is due to changes in markets in the form of falling interest rates and investment returns not something the members or employers are doing differently or failing to do).
One issue not all that prominent in all of this has been the potential disconnect between the unions and the members. On this occasion members have voted and you can't argue with that, but at various points over the last few years the unions have definitely NOT acted in their members best interest. Those chickens have yet to come home to roost.