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The High Court, taking the view that interpretation of the provisions of Directive 2008/94 is necessary in order for it to give its decision, decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: ‘1. Whether Directive 2008/94 … applies to the plaintiffs’ situation having regard to Article 1(1) of the Directive and to the fact that the loss of the pension benefits claimed by the plaintiffs are not, in Irish law, a debt against their employer which would be recognised in the receivership or any winding-up of the plaintiffs’ employer, and which does not otherwise provide a legal basis for a claim against their employer in the circumstances of this case. 2. Whether, in assessing whether or not the State has complied with its obligations under Article 8 [of Directive 2008/94], the national Court is entitled to take into account the State contributory pension which will be received by the plaintiffs (receipt of which is not affected by a link with the occupational pension scheme) and to compare (a) the total of the State pension and the value of the pension the plaintiffs will or are likely to actually receive from the relevant occupational pension scheme with (b) the total of the State contributory pension and the value of the accrued pension benefits of each of the Plaintiffs at the date of winding up of the scheme where the State pension was taken into account in designing the level of pension benefit claimed by the plaintiffs? 3. If the answer to Question 2 is yes, whether any of the amounts likely to be actually received by the plaintiffs amount to compliance by the State with its obligations under Article 8? 4. Whether, in order for Article 8 of … [D]irective [2008/94] to apply, it is necessary to establish any causal link between the plaintiffs’ loss of their pension benefits and the insolvency of their employer apart from the facts that (i) the pension scheme is under-funded as of the date of the employer’s insolvency and (ii) the employer’s insolvency means that the employer does not have the resources to contribute sufficient money to the pension scheme to enable the members’ pension benefits to be satisfied in full (the employer being under no obligation to do so once the scheme is wound up). 5. Whether the measures adopted by Ireland … fulfil the obligations imposed by … [D]irective [2008/94] having regard to the social, commercial and economic factors considered by Ireland in the review of pension protection following the decision in Robins and Others … and, in particular, having regard to the “need for balanced economic and social development in the Community” referred to in recital 3 [in the preamble to that] directive? 6. Whether the economic situation … constitutes a sufficiently exceptional situation to justify a lower level of protection of the plaintiffs’ interests than might otherwise have been required and if so, what is that lower level of protection? 7. Assuming the answer to Question 2 is no, whether the fact that the measures taken by the State subsequent to the Robins and Others case have not brought about the result that the plaintiffs would receive in excess of 49% of the value of their accrued pension benefits under their occupational pension scheme is in itself a serious breach of the State’s obligations such as to entitle the plaintiffs to damages ([that is to say] without separately showing that the State’s actions subsequent to the Robins and Others judgment amounted to a grave and manifest disregard of the State’s obligations under Article 8 of … [D]irective [2008/94]).’