Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It seems that little or no work has been done on this in recent months. I would have thought that at this stage the Minister would be in a position to tell us exactly how many people are likely to be affected by these changes and that he would have worked out a strategy to notify those people of how they are likely to be affected. We all are guilty of not making adequate preparation for the future and often when it comes to pensions people really only take an interest when they approach retirement age.

In respect of the State pension, in particular, there are many who assume because of their work record that they will have an entitlement to a full pension but the changes that have been made in recent years clearly will result in a significant number of people discovering, in many cases perhaps on retirement, that they do not have such an entitlement. There is a requirement on the Minister and his Department to notify people of the likelihood of that happening to them and to set out clearly what they can do to supplement their pensions between now and retirement age.

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