Dr. Seán Healy:

I suspect it is much higher. The proportion of the people in receipt of less than the full contributory pension is a very high proportion of the number in receipt of some form of contributory pension. An awful lot of people out there fit into the categories mentioned by the Deputy, for example, they worked for a few weeks after their leaving certificate and then did not have the actual numbers. In effect, people get percentages. Many people get €172 rather than €230. Another very large group of people gets substantially less than that because they did not have those ten years. That is what the ten years earns a person.