Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Essentially, the questions asked regarding the pension levy are a matter for the Minister for Finance. The pension levy is a levy on funds to generate money to invest in jobs and while one can always contrive an argument, on balance few people would argue that it was not a good mechanism to leverage money for the important purpose of job creation from funds that were put aside by people who received considerable tax relief. The Deputy's question presumes there is a deficit in the fund-----

See this speech in context