Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

If we consider what has happened in other countries, the USA established such a fund that is now €11 billion in deficit. The UK has 68 schemes that are part of its protection fund with 20,000 members. Some 7,500 schemes are eligible to enter it with a potential deficit of €200 billion. This is what is happening in other countries that have a state protection fund. The Government is not in a position to offer such protection to such funds. Obviously we will try to ensure we make the process as easy as possible and support it in whatever way we can. At the moment the 1,300 or so defined benefit schemes here have liabilities of approximately €100 billion and the provisional estimate is that they would be €30 billion in deficit.

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