Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The covers the top-up-type issue.

Consider the pensions provided by the two organisations. The Comptroller and Auditor General produces the audited accounts of the ESRI. He makes the point that the Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 deals with pensions and enables the Minister for Finance to make good any deficiency in the relevant pension scheme if contributions paid by members or the employer are insufficient to meet the obligations of the scheme. Given that but 25% of the money of the two organisations is provided directly by a Vote of this House, and 75% of funds come from other sources, why would an organisation such as the ESRI have pensions guaranteed in the order of 100% by the Minister for Finance? These are some of the issues that arise in the health sector. I refer to the section 38 hospitals and the section 39 agreements. Organisations in the health sector, which is one of the biggest, do not say that the pension should be guaranteed in the order of 100% by the Minister if only 25% of funding comes directly from an Oireachtas Vote. I would like the Minister to revert to us on that.

With regard to lottery regulation, the Minister gave me no breakdown on the €552,000. If he does not have it to hand, we would like him to send it on to us. The figure did not come out of thin air as it seems to have been calculated for some reason. There was one case this week of a Minister not micro-managing a new organisation. We do not want to let this become another one. The Minister might tell us the position on the sale of the lottery. Is it completed?