Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point that I want to get at there is that that we, as Dáil Deputies and Oireachtas Members, are regarded as well-paid. We would pay an amount greater than that. I would admit myself to not having any special pension arrangements or anything like that but approximately 50% of the income is gone by one means or another.

My next question is on pensions. Dr. Collins is proposing as if it was a simple thing, to change, for instance, the entitlement to pensions and to defined pension funds. Has Dr. Collins looked at the degree to which that kind of policy can be successful given that people were led to believe during the course of their working lives that they will have an entitlement to “X” “Y” or “Z” at the end of these lives? When one interferes with that, has Dr. Coillins looked at the legalities and constitutionality of those proposals?