Mr. Aidan McLoughlin:

A number of points were raised and hopefully I will be able to pick up on most of them. As regards tax relief, the alternative to paying somebody a pension is to pay them a salary. Taking that as a base point of calculating tax relief, an employer will get tax relief on it whether it is paid as a contribution or a salary. Therefore, the move to a pension contribution does not increase the tax subsidy from the State one iota.

Similarly, although it gets tax-free growth when it is in the pension fund, when it comes out it is typically taxed fully to income tax on receipt.