Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 3 April 2014
Public Accounts Committee
2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Financial Commitments under Public Private Partnerships
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting
Chapter 5 - Vote Budget Management
12:50 pm
Mr. Robert Watt:
No. When the National Pensions Reserve Fund was set up, the intention was that in the future, one third of the proceeds would meet some of the future costs of public sector pensions and two thirds of the cost of the social welfare bill. The intention when it was set up was to meet the future costs of ageing and if I remember correctly, one third of it was for public sector pensions and two thirds for social welfare. The social welfare pensions bill is around €5 billion and, as the Deputy knows, that is going up each year as the number of people over 65 years of age increases.