Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his comments again. I am not in a position to say what recommendations the Government will accept or otherwise. This will be a whole-of-government decision. There will be many discussions and, at the end of the day, we have to make the decisions that are fair and make sure the State pension, which is the bedrock of the system at the minute, continues. I always say that when I retire, the person who retires 30 or 40 years after me should get the same benefits I get. It is about how when the young people of today have reached retirement age, we have not pulled that ladder up after us and left nothing for them. The Deputy used the analogy of the ladder earlier on. There are difficult decisions but we will work our way through this and, hopefully, we reach the right decisions at the end of the day.