Dr. Laura Bambrick:

I want to make a point on pensions, in particular the gender pension gap. Very recent figures, from yesterday, acquired by colleagues in the Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation under freedom of information shows that in 2020 the gender pension gap for nurses and midwives was 42%. Male nurses and midwives, on a month-to-month basis, receive a pension that is 42%, almost half as much, higher than female nurses and midwives. As shocking as this is, only two years earlier in 2018 it was at 63.7%. This will give an idea of the road to travel on the pensions gender gap.

It was mentioned that the Pensions Commission did not cover tax relief on private and occupational pensions. To be fair, it was it outside its terms of reference. Last week, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, which was looking at this, made no recommendation for changes to the tax relief except for reducing the size of the pension lump sum that would be taxable and the rate at which it would be taxable.