Mr. Nicolas Schmit:

We certainly have an eye on pensions. They are part of the country-specific recommendations. We all know the challenges for our pension system. One of the challenges is what Deputy Shanahan mentioned, demographics. On the one hand, Ireland is not too badly placed in terms of its birth rate and immigration. However, we must watch two things. The first is the sustainability of our pension system and the second is the adequacy of what the pension system gives to people. The problem of adequacy is that if people have a very low pension, this means we are creating a new area of poverty in society of elderly people who are in poverty, which is not good for society. Therefore, it is a real issue everywhere. Pension systems differ from one member state to another, but we must observe and do some surveillance on how pensions evolve and encourage countries to adjust their pension system, bearing in mind the major constraints of financial sustainability in the long term and also guaranteeing the adequacy of the pension system for people.