Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The Social Insurance Fund is in surplus to the tune of €600 million but, as everybody has seen from the actuarial review, it quickly will not be in surplus. If we do nothing else except carry on, knowing the increase in demographics in that particular category over the next few years, within a short few years this fund will be in deficit and in the medium term it will be in serious deficit. That is why, as the committee will be aware, we are moving to a new pension reform system and going to a public consultation, it is hoped either before or immediately after Christmas, with a view to moving to a new system by 1 January 2020. That has been well documented and mapped out. We will determine within the public consultation the exact parameters of that new system but we are all hoping to move to a total contributions model. We will discuss the wherewithal during the public consultation and I look forward to the committee's input on it.

With regard to the 42,000 men and women who are suffering a pension anomaly arising from the changes in 2012, the report is just completed. We are considering it in my Department with a view to bringing it to Cabinet. We have made a decision to bring it to a sub-Cabinet committee meeting as opposed to a main Cabinet committee because there are significant resources required to address the issue. I expect that will happen in the coming weeks.