Ms Moyagh Murdock:

I will come back on that. I acknowledge what the Deputy talked about in respect of the challenge of the gender pension gap that exists. While the automatic enrolment scheme will certainly go some way to address the coverage, it is a fact, and a recent Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, report highlighted this, that on retirement women are retiring on 35% less than their male counterparts. As it is set up under its current design principles, the automatic enrolment scheme will not permit closure of that gap. It is a fact that women live longer than men. That 35%, on average, is approximately €150 a week. We need to get our heads around this perception that women can afford to live on a lot less than their male counterparts when they retire, when up to retirement they were probably earning equal amounts in many cases. Due to all the gaps and interruptions to their earning capacity over the course of their careers, they end up with much less. While Ireland has pension equity as regards the State pension at retirement, I argue it is not adequate. We all recognise it is a growing liability and a growing problem. We believe that addressing the design principles now will certainly allow women to make the decisions they want to make for their own financial independence on retirement, and they will be able to put aside the money they believe they can independently afford.

I acknowledge that there is a combined pool of money in households and, traditionally, the male earner was the major earner but lifestyles have changed and households have changed. We need to come up with a scheme that will allow us to adapt to that new working environment and ensure women have an adequate pension on retirement. I would be pushing to say we must do as much as we can now to close that gap and not put it on the long finger and say we will fix it down the line. That would not serve women well at all and we need to fix it now.

Regarding the investment of the funds, whether they are in Ireland, or in bonds or other investment products abroad, that will be a decision for the CPA under the current design principles. There will be some choice but there will be a default for members to pick what might be called the safest option. They will be able to make more risk-based decisions on where their pot goes, as is the case with any pension investment product, including private pensions, where people can work with their adviser on where they want those investments to go. I would not be able to predict what the investment strategy might be but €21 billion in ten years is a significant investment fund. That would be taken into consideration as to where best to put it and get the best return for the members of the schemes. I am sure the wisest decisions will be made to bring the correct return for the scheme itself and make it a viable scheme. That is what pension providers in Ireland do for all their private pension and occupational pension schemes. They have to be accountable to the trustees. Under this scheme, I presume the master trust will also have an overseeing role in that regard. It is a considerable responsibility for both the board of the CPA and the CPA executives responsible for this function.