Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I will not hold up proceedings.

There is another element present. The moneys being taken in with the assets are being used to write off our contribution to the pension reserve fund. That is probably necessary in the present climate but there is no requirement on the Minister if this is to be repeated. We are setting a precedent whereby the Minister does not state what the sound principle is, namely, that assets of this nature should not diminish our commitment to providing pensions for the future. That would be the principle that would normally be espoused. One could say that at present it makes sense to deviate from that sound principle because otherwise we would have to go out into international markets to borrow. However, the Minister has not annunciated the sound principle in the legislation and subsequently stated there is a deviation. Presumably, this will be looked to in the future as the legislative precedent for other pensions. Undoubtedly, there will be other pensions involved because there are people such as regulators whose pension schemes, as far as I know, are not included here but who probably have the same expectation that the State will underpin their pension position. I do not know if that is the case. The Minister is looking in a puzzled way-----

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