Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The irony is that in a couple of recent debates I had to beg, borrow and steal to get time to make a contribution but on this occasion events of the day have intruded on my preparation time to make a contribution.

The Minister and I know each other long enough and well enough for me to say with hand on heart that she got off the starting blocks on this issue with her mind and heart in the right place. In pretty much all her work I see the motivation of fairness and dividing out the cake in such a way as to ensure that while not perfectly equal there would be fair shares and in so doing to enlarge the cake. That is her economic motivation which is good.

It is a coincidence that today in the post I got an update on one of my single premium pensions with New Ireland Assurance. Several years ago I invested €45,000 and I am now advised that it is worth €32,000.

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