Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I agree that we should not be incentivising people to do this and that clearly the pension industry is incentivised - that is a different debate - I advise caution about one of the issues mentioned by Deputy Michael McGrath, namely, over-indebtedness. If there was access to AVCs to meet debt, the banks would force people to forgo their future for the present. That is the problem and the issue needs to be dealt with. We are in a broken system, but there are ways by which the issue of debt should be dealt with in a humane way. However, allowing one's bank to rob one's future should not be on the cards. I strike that note of caution.

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