Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

-----by the relevant Minister and by officials that this levy could have a serious negative impact on personal pensions. The Taoiseach decided to reverse a decade old procedure and he withheld this information from the public until he had pushed the levy through. That is a fact.

I have asked three times in this House for the Taoiseach to publish all background material on the pension levy. He decided not to do that. It took freedom of information requests to get that information out at the weekend. I have had to put down three freedom of information questions to different Ministers to try to get the background to this decision. The Taoiseach should not try to pass this off as some routine labour protection measure.

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