Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is one other factor in that regard, which is participation rates. This comes back to the broader issue where we were talking about gender earlier on. While the projections of the ESRI in that study were that participation rates would increase minimally over time, we have seen during lockdown and the Covid-19 period that there was a 2% increase in participation rates in this country, which was a phenomenal jump. If we can increase incrementally over the next 30 to 40 years at even a fraction of that, we will deal with a substantial part of the deficit there in respect of our State pension. That is something that committee members included in their submission to the Government, which was taken on board by it in respect of the pension age issue that was dealt with before.