Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No they did not. The average worker on €40,000 did not. That is a mistruth that the Minister is presenting to this committee and he knows it.

The Minister put out a press release saying that he is going to increase the standard fund threshold to €2.8 million. We are talking here about gold-plated pensions. At this point, someone can retire on €72,000 or €73,000 and get the taxpayer to help to subsidise that pension in full. Somebody can retire at the age of 66 on a pension in the mid-70s, around €75,000, which most people do not even earn while working, and the Minister is now planning to increase that pension pot threshold to €2.8 million. How much is that going to cost? How many people had to pay the excess tax that was only payable when their pension went above the pension pot threshold of €2.5 million?