Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has made the point she raised well. There is a need to scope out exactly what the problem is and identify the blockages. When a man or a woman decides to take time out of work to mind their children at, say, 30 years of age, the last thing they think of is the effect that break in their employment service will have on their income on reaching 65 years of age. There is an important job of work to be done in this area. It could possibly be done through the finance committee. I am happy to sit down with the Deputy to scope out exactly what the problem is, ascertain if there are solutions to it and what the cost implications would be. It is an important and relevant issue. It would not be practical to say to the Deputy that we would take it into consideration for this budget when it will be literally introduced next week. We could work through the issue over a number of months and identify all the problems and the consequences or unintentional consequences of changing the pensions set-up. I thank the Deputy again for raising this issue.

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