Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

The reality is that we have been waiting years for this Government to address the pensions crisis facing the country. It is 19 months since the Green Paper was published and we are still awaiting a White Paper on the way forward. The minor changes the Minister made in December and this week amount to nothing more than robbing Peter to pay Paul. She is not doing anything fundamental in terms of addressing the major problem of the deficit in so many pension schemes.

When will the Minister set out where the country is going in relation to pensions? Pension schemes are losing money by the week. There is a major problem as regards the over-emphasis and over-concentration on tax relief as a way of dealing with pensions. I have already asked the Minister to kindly come up with figures in that regard, and I now ask her again. The only figure we have for tax relief on pensions and its cost relates to 2006, and that is a global figure. Will the Minister produce figures for us before she announces the Green Paper that will provide data showing the different elements of the current pension provision costs? I am particularly concerned about the cost to the Exchequer of the self-administered schemes. Will she, therefore, be in a position to provide that data prior to the publication of the White Paper?

How does she intend to proceed in regard to pensions, given that millions of public and private money has been lost in the past year, in particular through gambling on the stock markets? Does she intend to take a new approach to pension provision and, if so, will it have the State pension at its core?

See this speech in context