Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think it is too early for me to give Deputy McGrath a definitive answer on that. At the moment, even though our social insurance system has a deficit within it, people will still get benefits to which they are entitled. That is because we use general taxation at times to complement where we are in the Social Insurance Fund to make sure that people get benefits to which they feel they are entitled or to which they have been told they are entitled, more particularly. One of the matters I want to be careful with is that if we do move to a purely contributory system - I do not have my mind made up on this - we would not in any way undermine the ability of taxpayers and citizens to be able to access a certain number of core benefits.