James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and welcome the Minister and his officials to the committee.

On the pensions subhead, because I understand we are taking each subhead at a time, I flicked through the Estimates to try to find the answer to this. I am not sure where we sit in terms of the pensions. Are they defined benefit, defined contribution or both? Is there a spectrum depending the ages of exit from the service? Perhaps we are paying both. If it is either, how is it funded? Is it funded through current spending or is there a pool under investment by actuarial management with a view to each year's spend coming out?