Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

That is the point, which is that there are a number of ways to deal with this. There was a consultation going back two years, we had the de Buitléir report as has been mentioned and there are serious challenges, albeit for a small cohort of individuals, which we have an obligation to try to resolve. The Minister made the point we cannot differentiate but we already do it. It already exists in the Irish tax code under how the chargeable excess is actually paid. Our tax provision already differentiates between private sector individuals and public sector individuals in a quite significant way. I think it is section 787TA that provides a facility for members of public sector pensions arrangements whereby the tax liability from the chargeable excess can be discharged over a period of 20 years and, on the death on an individual, the chargeable excess dies with him or her, that is, the remaining part that was never paid. Whereas for a private individual, the tax code makes it clear he or she has to pay chargeable excess within three months of the crystallisation and there is no refund if the individual passes away within the next month or year. I want to make that point that our tax code does allow, and has facilitated unencumbered provisions that differentiate between public sector employees and private individuals on the issue of the chargeable excess. My argument and contention is, and I am not saying this about Deputy Brennan's proposal because I want to hear some of the answers, that is definitely one way of addressing that issue. I want to make sure there are no unintended consequences but there are other ways of doing it as well where we can actually bring forward provisions, as has been done in relation to certain types of employees in terms of the chargeable excess.