Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let me be very clear. I answered the questions and I do not wish to have any confusion about a matter of this importance, nor do I want any excitement to lead to such confusion. I was asked what were the changes between the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements and I said I would go through that in detail with the Deputy next week. Will we achieve the targets in savings? Yes. There will be €300 million this year and €1 billion by 2015. For that reason it will not be necessary to amend the published Estimates, because those figures are in the Estimates. I hope that is clear.

With regard to the engagement with pensioners, the report last week showed that pensioners are the single group that has been least impacted to date. That is a good thing. However, it is reasonable that people on pensions of more than €32,500, and that is a small number of people, would make a proportionate contribution to the deal, which is 2% at that rate, when one is asking people who are working to take a further cut. At the top end of the scale, I am asking those who are on pensions of over €100,000 to make a 28% contribution. I do not believe there will be a clamour against that on the other side of the House.

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