Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her presentation. We were talking in the first session about pensions. I note that the figure for expenditure on pensions is €6.5 billion, which represents one in three euro spent on the social welfare budget. That is considerable expenditure. I will not delay the committee because I see that we have only about 20 minutes to discuss the matter. The position is that if one looks at the figures as a whole, it is obvious that this is the area in which one will face increased liabilities in the years to come, due as the Minister pointed out, to demography. The Department estimates that the pensions bill will increase by up to €1 billion in the next five years due to an increased number of recipients. The Minister will be aware that there are various suggestions as to how the matter should be addressed. For example, there is an OECD report. There is also a report from Social Justice Ireland on a universal pension scheme and there is a Department of Social Protection document dating back to 2010. Various other proposals also exist. What is the position on the reports as we face into this huge demographic crisis, where according to the figures, the ratio of people earning to people not earning is going to reduce substantially by 2050? What, if any, action has been taken on the reports and what action is it proposed to take?

When one is facing a crisis like this, one of the obvious partial solutions is to encourage people to provide for themselves, buy their own pensions and, therefore, take themselves off being dependent on the State. What specific proposals do we have to encourage people to provide for themselves?

I note the bereavement grant is part of this subhead. The savings made on the abolition of the bereavement grant are approximately €21 million. When we were discussing this in the Dáil, the Minister informed me and other Members that people who needed assistance with funeral payments could have access to the burial grant, which is means-tested. It existed side by side with the bereavement grant in the past. I know of many cases in which many people had to avail of both grants because the bereavement grant only went a small way towards covering the costs of a funeral. What additional provision has been made to that budget, out of which the burial grant is paid? Is it paid out of supplementary welfare payments?