Mr. Liam Berney:

Sorry, if I could make a couple of points. When this proposal was originally made, the Department produced the strawman paper in which it set out ideas about how the problem of the low coverage of second tier occupational pensions in the private sector would be addressed. In our submission on that, we argued that if there is to be auto-enrolment, it should be controlled entirely by the State and the money should go into a State agency and invested by a State agency. That is what we argued. The original strawman paper proposed what was more akin to an entirely private model whereby the money would go into pension providers. It seems the Department has moved away from that proposal in that it is now proposing a central processing authority that will receive the money from employers and employees.

That money will then be given to investment managers but with parameters around it to say we are giving the money but that we expect them to deliver a particular return. In fact, they will say we need them to guarantee we will get that return.

It is within the remit of the Oireachtas to give a mandate to the central processing authority, through legislation, to address some of the questions the Deputy talked about and to ensure it has a capacity to guarantee that the money will be invested in Ireland, that it will be invested in ethical schemes and so on. It is entirely within the gift of Members of the Dáil and Seanad to outline the central processing authority’s mandate in legislation. I would not underestimate the possibilities that exist within the Houses of the Oireachtas to ensure that the central processing authority will perform the function it has been mandated to perform, with the safeguards the Deputy raised.