Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Begg for his presentation. I did not have a copy of it in front of me but I took some notes. I will look at the transcript later as the presentation was quite wide ranging. We have a Minister for Social Protection who sets policy and yet Mr. Begg seems to suggest the Pensions Authority has a remit in terms of setting future policy. Will he elaborate on that? He said it was a small group, himself and two others.

On whom would the authority rely? What type of discussions would take place before the Pensions Authority would take a position on different policies?

There is a need for a debate and I am not trying to restrict that. I am trying to figure out how those debates happen and how we can contribute to them. Obviously, Mr. Begg has experience, as every trade union leader would have, in terms of the concerns of members and society in general. His opening statement reflected that in terms of the concern about the sustainability of pensions. He mentioned that, in some ways, these are figures which in time could turn out to be right or wrong. The concern about the sustainability of pensions may, in fact, be wrong. Mr. Begg would be aware that some economists have suggested that it is wrong while others suggest it is a low estimate of what is required. Is it Mr. Begg's intention to try to get another report similar to the one done by KPMG, I think, in 2012? That could present us with more variables, for example, if the population increases or decreases. What is the timeframe on that? That would be important as a new Government is coming in within a number of months.

As chairman of the Pensions Authority, will Mr. Begg be able to comment in an individual capacity or must it always be as the chairman of the authority? As chairman designate, has he a view on deferred pensioners who are in defined benefit schemes and their lack of rights when a scheme is wound up or transferred into defined contribution one? We had a huge debate here about that. I will not try to tease it all out again but it is something we need to revisit.

If members have the patience, there are questions to which I might come back.