John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow up one or two points with Mr. Moran. He attributed a comment to the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, that in moving to a total contribution basis there would be winners and losers. As I said to him at the time, that is assuming the pot is exactly the same. Mr. Moran has already made that assumption.

As regards moving from the annual averaging system, and notwithstanding that people get credits whether as homemakers or for whatever other purpose, there is an inherent inequity in it. Somebody could have a lot more contributions than someone else, but the time they entered the system affects it. There is probably merit in looking at another system. The challenge is to ensure it addresses anomalies before the system is introduced.

Mr. Moran referred to the type of people who should get credits and that needs to be built into it as well. However, moving away from annual averaging to another system would have greater equality built into it. While it probably will not be addressed in next year's budget, we do need to get to a fairer system than annual averaging.

A number of colleagues have supplementary questions. I will call Deputy O'Dea first.