Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

As Deputy Bruton is aware, the Government has considered in some detail the recommendations of the group set up to examine the issue of pensions. There has been an amount of discussion by the Government about an appropriate pensions policy, and it has formed part of the discussions with the social partners as well, but the reality is that in the middle of the financial storm we are in it is very difficult to devise a pension policy for the future. It is clear the pension policy will have to be reorientated for the future. It involves considerations not just of public sector pensions but also of the basic State pension provision and the whole question of the supplement that can be offered to private sector workers to supplement what they have already accrued on their State pension, and what they can add to that.

There is a very wide range of considerations in that respect and the Minister for Social and Family Affairs and I are devising policy for the future in that regard but it is difficult in the current climate because defined benefit schemes have seen considerable exposures in the current economic climate. We have tended to give attention to that and how we can protect the position of those who are in danger of having no pension in the first instance.

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