Ms Jacqueline Thornton:

I can pick up on the actual structure of the CPA. The Chairman is correct that we have seen two approaches in jurisdictions around the world. Even in those that utilise the existing pension infrastructure, it takes quite a bit of time to set that up. He referenced the Nordic structures, in particular. We have seen in countries such as Sweden, one of the most notable points is the PPM, as it believe it was called, was set up as a fully functioning state body with the administration outsourced. What happened there is the large global infrastructure, the IT provider to which it was outsourced, could not deliver coming up to the deadline and the state had to take it back in-house. The state had to then build from scratch.

Following on from Ms Murdock's point about resource and time, that simply pushes the deadline out. It is our contention that looking at the other countries similar to Ireland such as the UK, for example, utilising existing pension infrastructure is quicker and easier and it has been proven to deliver. Providers have been providing pensions in Ireland for decades. They are quite experienced at providing pensions. They understand how long it takes to tender for these types of contracts and it is our belief that it will take much longer than 1 January to have the outsourced provider in place.