Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Burton who initiated the changes told us at the time that it was an equity measure, a measure to bring contributions more into line with payments, but in recent debates she has portrayed it as a cut to protect the Social Insurance Fund. Assuming the Minister gets this proposal through the Cabinet subcommittee tomorrow, and I wish her the best of luck with that, and assuming it goes to and is approved by Cabinet, can we envisage that the changes will come in more or less immediately? In other words, I am trying to ascertain the timeline and I presume there will not be a decision by the Cabinet that we are going to do this, that or the other and that we will have to wait until the next budget for the timeline for these changes. Can the Minister give an assurance that the timeline for the introduction of the changes she proposes, if accepted, will commence before the next budget?

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