Mr. Tony Donohoe:

I am conscious that I did not pick up on Deputy O'Dea's comments on the UK. I will refer him to a report last year from the UK's Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. Some 11 million people in the UK expect to receive benefits from a DB scheme. According to the report, 3 million of them have only a 50% chance of receiving that benefit. The UK has experienced employer debts, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, but its legislation has not solved the problem. The flight from DB to DC has accelerated and there are serious concerns that the pensions protection fund will not have anywhere near the resources - and one should recall that it is a much larger economy than ours - to meet those liabilities. The UK has gone down this route but has probably not got the results it was seeking.