Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It could be anybody. I am sure there is a security mechanism to deal with this. On the overall vote, there is a new integrated pension scheme for all public servants which became operable on 1 January 2013. Everybody, a judge, a Deputy, a civil servant or a garda is part of the single integrated pension scheme from that date. The calculation of a pension is different and will be on a career average profile rather than an end-of-career profile and the implications of that will be to reduce the pension Bill by some 35%. We are now recruiting again in significant numbers and that is impacting on the quantum of money people are paying into the single pension scheme in annual contributions. Deputy Fleming asked me if that was offset against the net cost and the answer is "Yes". It will increase into the future. When we brought in the single pension scheme we did not think about it because, in 2011, we were in a crisis. There might be an argument, however, for re-establishing some sort of a pension reserve fund or, at least, a bespoke fund that is transparent about the funds that are being built up. It would have to be topped up for a number of years with annualised pensions as we go along but it might be something to be looked at in the future and I have opened a debate on the issue.

One of the most significant things to have happened within the PAS in the past 12 months is the fact that it has taken responsibility for appointments to all State boards. An analysis of the impact was done last week by the Institute of Directors and it was uniformly positive about the effect on the skills mix of boards, the volume of applicants and gender equality. In terms of gender equality, 55% appointed were male and 45% female so it was approaching the 60:40 ratio. Applications received were 69% male and 31% female so the balancing carried out by the PAS equated better to the target we want to achieve.

We are not very far from having a proper 40% gender quota established across State boards and I am confident we can do it very quickly, if it has not already been done since this analysis was conducted. The arbitration board is now with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. There was a real issue about appointing the right chair, which is why the chair was recruited separately. If I recall, it was Dr. Bunni who was appointed. He was recruited because he has international experience in the area. The panel is still being finalised. I will obtain up-to-date information for Deputy Sean Fleming on when this might be done.

With regard to Garda recruitment and the unique identifier-----