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

But it comes into the AE debate when you take things in the round. The difference in cash was about €40,000 in today's money when you got to pension age. That was front-loaded to the beginning of your pension years, which was great because lots of people die at 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 or 73. Lots of people do not get to 83 years of age so it is good to get it at the beginning. That €30,000 or €40,000 is index-linked because that is in today's money. Now we are suddenly being told to take 6% and one that will not be index-linked so you would hope the investment returns some money. It might and it might not. As they always warn on the television investments can go up and down. We saw that in how pension levies can come in and so on. Did the Department look at the option of a pure State scheme where 6% would be taken off, which could maybe be made optional on PRSI, that this would give you a supplementary pension at pension age and that the State would toss in 2% out of the Exchequer every year into a State-funded, controlled and used fund that would be on the GGB?