Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Bolger for his opening presentation and the much more in-depth document that underpins it. I will raise a number of issues one by one, rather than overwhelming Mr. Bolger with questions. Essentially, Mr. Bolger broke his presentation into three different aspects and my questions will follow each one.

On the idea of a central processing agency, CPA, Mr. Bolger said it was "a State monopoly", which is language that provokes a response. I am of a mind that it is important the State plays a central role. The CPA is explicitly to be set up as being not for profit. Then the fiduciary interest is supposed to be to each individual member of the pensions. The CPA is the organisation that stands between the member and the pensions. I understand that as the pension options are still being provided, there will be at least four registered providers and those registered providers will be within the private pensions market. Does Mr. Bolger's understanding of it differ from mine? I believe that we have almost a clearing house whose job is to gather together all of the information that is necessary to make sure the employer and employee contributions come in. I know that Irish Life has suggestions around whether Revenue should be able to step into that space and I am not sure that I would agree with that. I do not see that people are being inhibited from making choices about their pensions when it is explicitly stated, within the documents, that there will be four registered providers that will proceed out of the CPA.