Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

It is now two weeks since the Taoiseach promised, in the House, to make available all background material concerning the €1.8 billion pension levy. Unlike practice for the last decade, the Minister for Finance announced a major revenue proposal without publishing any background papers. I challenged the Taoiseach on this and he said he would have no difficulty in providing any information. I immediately wrote to him seeking this information but none has been supplied to me.

This matters because this week the House will vote on this levy. Almost every day a new piece of information is emerging on its potential impact. At the weekend a report was published stating it could have a severe impact on defined benefit schemes. Last week the International Monetary Fund expressed its concerns about unintended consequences. There is huge concern, therefore, about the impact of the pension levy. The people have a right to examine the information on which the Government relied when it made this decision and decided to introduce the levy. The programme for Government committed to providing more information before budget votes, but, in fact, the Government is providing less. Will the Taoiseach tell us in a straightforward way whether the Government carried out a full assessment of the likely impact of the levy and whether it has considered the analysis which suggests it will reduce pensions provision by far more than the €1.8 billion suggested?

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