Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Pensions is one other area. Mr. Schmit has highlighted the importance of pensions in his submission document. We have a new system based on auto-enrolment. We are trying to get people into a pension plan much earlier because it is something that was not happening. We do not have a significant number of contributory pensions here. I do not know if Mr. Schmit understands the concept, but we have done away with defined-benefit pensions. It could be something the Commission could talk to the Department of Finance about. We used to have a very large pension reserve fund in this country, and we have had to access it to create equity for other spending. Like Europe, we have a pensions time bomb in this country. This is something that will have to be addressed. As Mr. Schmit knows, we have an ageing demographic, with people living longer and the question is how their lifestyles are to be funded and how they are to meet their costs over the course of their lives. That is an observation Mr. Schmit might take away also.