Mr. David Moloney:

The issue in 2023 was that the money was not paid over to Revenue but the money was calculated. The issue currently is that CET was not calculated in regard to these cases because it was not understood they were subject to CET or that the standard fund threshold was reached. I understand that happened for a number of reasons. As Ms Kelly said, one of the factors was that some people may have private pensions. Another possible issue might be that the standard fund threshold, when it was established, was seen to apply only to the most senior grades in the public service but, in fact, it is a value threshold and is not related to grade. That may have caused some confusion.

One of the things the Minister has asked for, and the chair of the NSSO is in the process of commissioning, is a full end-to-end review in order that we fully understand these issues. At the moment, we are giving the best information we can based on the work done in recent months in catching up on the issues. We will procure a full audit of the issues and, at that stage, we will have a much clearer view of the full range of causes. For the moment, the factors I mentioned are what we see as the most likely source. Using an external auditor, we will validate that.