Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 52:

In page 28, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:“(2) (a) The qualifying criteria for early access to pension benefits as outlined in the Finance Act 2013 shall be increased to include those in defined contribution schemes (including personal retirement savings accounts) subject to certain qualifying conditions.
(b) The person making the application fulfils one of the following criteria—

(i) they have been made redundant in the previous twelve months;
(ii) they are a first time buyer (subject to anti-avoidance measure that if the money is not used to purchase a home it must be repaid to their pension scheme);
(iii) they have suffered critical illness.”.

The part of the section I wish to address relates to early access to AVCs, in particular, which the Minister introduced in last year's budget. In the budget documentation released at the time, the Minister estimated that the measure would bring in approximately €200 million over a three-year period. He pencilled in €100 million for 2013. I understand the figure fell well short of that. The last figure I saw, pertaining to the end of June, indicated approximately €10 million extra had been brought in. The Minister might give us the up-to-date position on that.
The purpose of my amendment is to try to stimulate debate and ascertain the Minister's current position on widening the scope of early access to pension contributions, in particular for those who have experienced some shock in their lives, be it through an unexpected redundancy, critical illness or debt problems, or those seeking to buy a home for the first time. The scope of the Minister's initiative last year, while welcome, was very limited. Could the Minister give us an update and outline the level of activity and draw-down? With that knowledge, we might be able to move on to the wider issue of broadening the scope.