Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all happy to pay into that even though, with the part that is not means-tested, a lot of us might not gain that much.

I am probably the only person in the room who can say that I am one of the generation of people for whom it makes no difference what is done to the pension age because they have already passed the magic number. They are the people who can afford this - not the young people for whom we are cutting off a long-term benefit. If they were asked whether a change in the pension age would make a difference, they might say "No" if they were selfish. The people who have already reached 66 years of age might want to pull up the ladder after them and say that it is tough on anyone who comes behind them. It is very prescient of the younger group to say "hang on a second" and to query the fact that they are being asked to get rid of the ladder just because they do not need it at the moment. It has actually inverted who might have a selfish interest in pulling up the ladder and getting increases in the pension as opposed to allowing people in the 66 to 68 age group to get it.

If, in 20 years, people find that such a thing is unsustainable, they will have to think it out again. There are many ways to think this out. It is not a one-trick pony. Having worked in the Department for a while, I have a suspicion that the terms of reference are written and it gets the answer it wants. It is a cynic's view of the world.