Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The proposal in terms of a contributor dipping into his or her pension is one we in Sinn Féin would have considered well over a year and half ago. As the Minister would know, many people would like to avail of this opportunity. However, we did not come forward with proposals to do so. One of the concerns we had was that the banks would use this as a way to access money that should be there for retirement purposes to force people to pay back debt instead of writing down their debt. It is a concern we would still have.

On the AVCs, an amendment in this respect was ruled out of order earlier. I want to pick up on a point made by the Minister about not incentivising these this year. If I had an AVC, it would go into an ARF when I would draw down that money on reaching retirement age and I would pay tax and PRSI on it. I am not sure of the changes that were made in this respect but I would definitely pay PRSI on it and I would perhaps also pay the universal social charge on it as well. If I was to retire a year from now and draw down an amount from my pension, what would the position be? I am aware of the proposal in respect of the 30% category who are exempt from liability to the USC and PRSI. If this measure did not exist and my pension policy was due to mature next year and I started to draw down money from it, would I pay tax, PRSI and USC on the portion of it that I would draw down?