Ms Lucy O'Donoghue:

I think Mr. Moran has covered it. On the element of discretion, to be fair, in the public service pension scheme, whatever the level of discretion that was applied, it was always done in a fair manner. If there is a legislative piece on top of that, however, it is quite difficult to use discretion. If there is legislation detailing a specific rule, it is a struggle to manage discretion in a just way.

The Central Bank scheme mirrors the Civil Service scheme. While it is not the same scheme, it mirrors it. Whatever happens to the Civil Service scheme, which applies to the wider public service, the Central Bank takes that on board and does the exact same. It does not go outside that. The level of discretion available to it is, therefore, less. The level of discretion that was used by the Department of Finance was managed very well. It is a complex issue. Pensions are always complex. Sometimes discretion is easier to manage in a fair way than the strike of the pen right across the board. That is where the problem is.