Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I do not disagree with a lot of what he said but he did not answer the question. The question is very simple and maybe I could repeat it. I do not believe that the NPRF - to which the Taoiseach said the money will go back to pay for the pensions in the future - will ever pay a pension. It will be used for infrastructure. It has been used for the banks. It is now a kind of a slush fund for the Government at a time of emergency. It has two forms of funds. It has one for direct - what it called directed - investment and one for discretionary investment. This one is for some reason being used for discretionary investment and the other one, into which the great multiple of the NPRF money has gone, is one that is gone down a black hole into the banks. Why can we not use this €450 million as a direct investment, thereby relieving people of this €40 charge annually over 20 years?

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