Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is why existing level of service, ELS, funding is going up by so much. It is one of the big reasons. It is very clear to me that the demographic transition, which we used to think about being in the medium term or happening at some point in the future, is happening now and in many different ways. It is happening in our health service and in our schools. We do ELS forecasts and ask what money we will need to continue to be able to provide the same level of public services for a bigger population. The ELS forecasts are made available to the Department of Social Protection and include the ability to continue to pay pensions at their current level to a large number of people in the future.