Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

There seems to be a broad consensus around the House that this was a modest effort at creating jobs and nobody seems to disagree with the efforts made by the Government to do so. The problem is on the other side, on the tax on what the Minister referred to yesterday as the pensions industry. There is a certain misnomer or misunderstanding about what he was saying. If he was tackling the pensions industry, I would not have too much problem with what he is doing.

The pensions industry is a goldmine, a gravy train for a large number of people who perhaps ought to be taxed. It is divided into two sections. What the Government has done is hit the contributors to the pensions industry and the victims of those who benefit from the industry rather than tackling those who are benefiting and milking the industry. It is very difficult to get exact figures because it is such an opaque industry. Rough estimates on what fund managers receive, who under-perform consistently on behalf of their members, vary between €250 million and €500 million per annum.

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