Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One has to bear in mind what was done in 2012. The system that prevailed before that meant that someone who perhaps had made 1,000 contributions over his or her entire life could get a 98% pension and someone who had made double those contributions over his or her life would get the same pension. There was an effort to relate more fairly the amount of pension provided to the contribution record of the individual. It is a contributory scheme. To move away from that principle of relating to a reasonable degree the eligibility to the contributions would be a strange direction for policy to take. We must try to build a system where people make contributions and employers also make contributions and we build up both the State element and the private element to give adequate pension cover. That is the challenge we have. I do not think we can assume that those who made a lesser contribution can automatically get the same amount as those who made a greater contribution. That is the dilemma we face.

Deputy Catherine Martin is correct that we need to look in particular at the position of women in the workforce. That is an issue that will have to be addressed in the wider policy but it is part of a bigger picture which will dominate discussion over many years.

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