John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is the on funding. The former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, established the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF. There was €20 billion or €22 billion in that when it came to the crash and it possibly softened the blow. However, it is empty. I believe in a rainy day fund and I believe in that future-proofing of public finances. Is there a scenario in an ideal world where, if a prudent future-proofing approach was taken to issues, for example, corporation tax where we have been told for the past five or six years at the committee that we cannot rely on it and we should put aside surpluses from it, and we started managing that, that this would not become the crisis that we think it could become? If we took a mature approach to this, will the State be well provided for in meeting the demands of pensions into the future or will it be challenging no matter what model we come up with?