Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There was a proposal ten years ago to standardise tax relief at 33%. That meant if a person were paying 20% or 40% tax, he or she would receive 33% tax relief. The advantage of that was the people at the bottom end of the wages scale were not, once again, being hit. What the union representative is saying is that the State contribution is not going to be anything real. Most people who were paying into pension funds were at doing so 40% tax because people on low wages did not bother with private pensions. It was more important for them to get a house and live their life and rear their kids rather than to put money away for the rainy day. That is my experience of dealing with people at the lower end. The biggest pension they have going into old age, which many younger people will not have, is that nearly all universally own their property.