Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is still very significant. Our remit here is gender equality and making sure we do not embed further gender inequality. We are talking about a situation where less than half of women are qualifying for the full contributory pension, so, on that point on benchmarking and indexation, if people are on a reduced rate, they will be below whatever the benchmarking and indexation rate is in terms of the pensions they receive.

I know the Department wanted to answer some of the other questions. I am worried that we embed an inequality a little bit further. When the witnesses are coming back on the other pension questions, they might also come back on the question of the universal pension. The Department gave a costing for that of €2 billion to €3 billion, which is quite interesting. If, for example, we had a universal pension, one would imagine that everybody was pulled up to the full contributory pension that is benchmarked and indexed, and the Department estimates that at €2 billion to €3 billion.