Despite 39 years of work during which he paid about €78,000 in accumulated pension contributions, Seán Maher was looking at a pension of €50 to €60 per week once he reached 65 thanks to the “double insolvency” that hit Waterford Crystal in 2009.

Now, following the European Court of Justice’s ruling, he might get the payments to which he has been entitled to, along some 1,700 other ex-Waterford Crystal employees.

“Overjoyed,” he said yesterday when asked for his reaction.

He paid tribute to Unite union and all who took the case against the Irish government, and to the members’ legal team and the actuaries who put together the arguments which were vindicated by the justices in Luxembourg.

“It was hard-fought and hard-got,” he said. “I do hope the Government will act sooner rather than later and not waste any more taxpayers’ money.”

Mr Maher was one of the hundreds of workers who found themselves out of a job in January of 2009 when the company went into receivership. He and his family were “in an awful situation,” in common with his ex-colleagues when the pension scheme was left insolvent.

He compared that predicament to some of the country’s top bankers whose “packages” must be protected at all costs.

“We didn’t even get redundancy and had to fight hard to get social welfare.”

Former glasscutter Tom Hogan was 43 years at Waterford Crystal before taking one of the last redundancy packages on offer in July 2008. He thought he would be getting €400 a week on reaching the age of 63, along with a lump sum. Instead, with the factory closed down six months later and “the pension gone wallop,” he found himself getting €100 a week.

Now he is hoping the Government will abide by the ruling.

"I don't know how much faith I have in them to respond; they let it go this far when they could have intervened – particularly the Labour Party. The European Court of Justice has effectively said the workers at Waterford Crystal have been abused for the last four years."