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

I thank the Minister and her officials for the very comprehensive briefing document, which runs to 101 pages. I wish to follow up on the point Deputy Kerrane made about the mandatory retirement age. I know it is a continuing sore point for many people who are made to retire at 65 and then do not have access to the State pension until 66. I would appreciate if we could move on that.

On reading the document, I was struck by the fact that the Department of Social Protection probably has a fuller picture of the people arriving here from Ukraine than any other Department by the nature of the payments it makes. Regarding pensions, does the Department have an idea of how many people arriving here are not of working age?

Expenditure on pensions has increased by almost €316 million. Is that linked to the additional number of people in receipt of it? Has that been modelled out? One of the things about an ageing demographic is that it is fairly predictable. What is the anticipated increase in the number of people accessing the pension?