Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

First, in relation to individuals, in the answer I gave to Deputy Doherty I outlined the great difficulty we face in terms of trying to estimate the number of individuals this could apply to and how we have used the CET to try to surmise the number of people who could be affected.

In each year from 2026 to 2030, our estimate - it is only an estimate - is that there are 224 individuals who will become liable for the CET. However, a proportion of people will have funds that are greater or less than the average value of €2.58 million. It is estimated that 124 individuals will have a fund valuation of the average of €2.58 million, 50 individuals will have a fund valuation of €2.2 million and a further 50 individuals will have a fund valuation of €3 million. They are the best figures we have available to us.

In relation to the Deputy's point on differentiation, particularly with regard to the application of age-related factors, yes, there is a degree of differentiation that is already in place. From our consideration of this issue, which we did, to try to treat people differently with regard to the application of the age-related factor, our view was that would be in excess of the degree of differentiation that would be possible. It would raise really fundamental equity issues regarding how different groups are being treated. That is one of the reasons, and is in fact a key reason, that I believe treating different groups or workers differently with regard to an age-related factor would not be possible.