Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is fair to say that NAERSA will collect all of the contributions from employer, employee and State top-ups. It will have it. The investment managers will only have one account. There will not be individual accounts. It will all be managed through NAERSA.

The point I wish to make is that there are economies of scale there because we are pooling all of the contributions.

There will be three different pots of low risk, medium risk and high risk so people can decide which pot they prefer. If people do not want to make a choice there is a default pot, which we will choose.

This is a massive task that was given to the NTMA. It would have to do exactly what we are doing in terms of setting up a whole system to collect and then pass the money on to the investment managers. What we are doing here is making sure that this is robust and is accountable to the Minister and the Oireachtas but, most importantly, this is accountable to the interests of the people who contribute. It is their money and we should not forget that. This is not State money. This is the money of the members of the scheme. It is the duty of NAERSA to make sure that this money is looked after in a proper and safe way through their investments.