Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Burke and Ms Heaney for their presentations and for being here. I wish them both all the very best as they set out in their new roles. I am sure it is an exciting and very proud time for both of them, so I offer them my congratulations and best wishes.

I have just a couple of brief comments and questions about the work of the Pensions Council. The point about the work it is now undertaking on transparency on fees and charges is really important because a lot of the time pensions is such a complex world and for an awful lot of people it is really important we have that transparency on fees and charges. That will be particularly important as the new auto-enrolment system rolls out. Ms Burke might be able to tell us about the level of engagement or work the Pensions Council has on auto-enrolment, whether it plays a role in any of that and what that will look like. Auto-enrolment is really important because we know that so many people rely on the State pension and do not have the supplementary pension to allow them to enjoy a decent or basic standard of living in retirement. I hope that when we see auto-enrolment set up it will be transparent, we will have the likes of an app on our mobile phones and we will be able to see what our contributions are coming to in a pension pot. That is really encouraging for people. You can be paying off bits and pieces through your wages, various taxes and everything else; you do not really know where they are going. It is really important we can see where our pension contributions are going, see throughout our working life where we are with our pension pots and see the fees and charges we are paying. All of that will play a role in encouraging people to set up their pensions for later life.

I note that Ms Burke is a member of the Pensions Commission. If appropriate, she might tell us where the report the commission will bring forward is. It was to be published at the end of June. That has not happened. That is fine, but is there any update on that? It is a critical piece of work, as Ms Burke will know.

I thank Ms Heaney for her presentation. I hope I am not repeating what has been said, but she mentioned, I think, something about a review of MABS, which is a really important service for people the length and breadth of the State. Ms Heaney will know that when regionalisation was proposed, this committee in the previous Dáil had brought in the CIB and members of MABS and did a report that recommended that that regionalisation not go ahead at that point. It did go ahead, and it is really important that that be reviewed and that we see how that regionalisation has worked for the services on the ground because the work they do is so important.