Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The only problem with that is I have been hearing for 20 years that 2038 would be the real hit year. The problem still remains.

We are not really catching up on it or passing it by despite that a huge influx of young, tax-paying people into the country came in that period. The incoming population has doubled, to say the least. It goes without saying that the extra tax-paying population who are not retired or on pensions puts the whole structure on its head. More taxpayers are coming into the country than are leaving it. We need to look at that again to see what we are doing to use that influx of a young tax-paying population to deliver services to whoever may need them, without seeming to blame one sector or another on the basis that they are taking up space.

I want to move on-----