Mr. Eamonn Phelan:

I will just give some background on some of the durations. As members know, the durations can vary widely across different European countries and the OECD countries. For example, in Italy, it can be as low as 1.5 months. It can go to 24 months, which is dependent on the number of contributions, but it has a floor of 1.5 months' duration. The Netherlands has a floor of three months. Spain has a floor of four months and Portugal has a floor of five months. Countries like France and Germany have a similar floor of six months, which is in our PRB proposal as well. There are other durations across European countries which are similar to our own in that respect. They do increase, depending on the contributions.

Deputy Collins mentioned quite a few percentages in terms of how the benefit is calculated in other countries. There are quite high numbers mentioned for various countries, up to 80% or 90% of previous salary, but in many cases a cap is applied as well, so sometimes we see 80% or 90% of previous salary but it is subject to a cap. It is similar to the model we have tried to develop where we have taken 60% of previous salary, but it is also subject to a cap in most circumstances. Finland is the only country I am aware of among the EU and OECD countries that does not apply a cap.