Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister. I will leave it at that. The points have been made clear. I know the Minister said he is going to go away and look at this. What is missing from our end is information. I still do not know, for example, with regard to defined benefit pensions, how many exist within the private sector and how many are in the public sector that would hit the standard fund threshold. Meaningful policies cannot be proposed without having that information.

There are two things I want to say to the Minister on this. The point was made, and I want to make it again, that there is, in some cases within our public sector, a requirement on them to retire early. Therefore, that, in my view, could allow the basis for a differentiation with regard to how you would deal with those individuals. Second, while it is not where I think we should be at, the Minister said he is going to go away and look at this. There is an expert group being established again - another one. When are we likely to see proposals coming forward in relation to this matter? Is it in the mouth of the Finance Bill? Is it early next year that would give an indication of where the direction of travel is? When are we likely to see something? For us in the Opposition, data are absolutely crucial to being able to formulate a policy and say whether this is worth doing or captures a broader audience, which is not the intention and is therefore not worth doing.