Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Minister for the reply. Does the Minister agree it is important that all information about public service pensions is put out there? There are some 13,000 public sector pension holders and 4,300 spouses of deceased public servants who receive pensions. The bulk of pensions are below €12,000 a year and only one public service pension is in excess of €150,000 a year. Perhaps the Minister can tell us who is the lucky retired public servant who receives €150,000 a year. What is the net cost of public service pensions? We are provided with figures on gross cost when most public servants contribute significantly to their pensions. I am delighted the Minister told us the pension levy now produces €1 billion per year. The extra pension contributions will raise an additional €800 million, with €100 million from retired pensioners in 2011 and €700 million in additional pension contributions. It would be useful to set out this and to set out who gets what. What is the average public service pension? Most people receive less than €12,000.

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