Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his answer. I am glad that he has acknowledged, as the chief financial officer of the State, that he is the lead person on pension policy. During my time as Minister for Social Protection a vast amount of work and consultation, the results of all of which are available to him, was carried out by my Department, with the active support and interest of his own. However, the process has stalled and we seem to be about to undergo another consultation process which could delay everything by a further five years. Irish society has a changing demographic. Unless we have something like a supplementary pension option for workers to save for their retirement, many will end up on the State pension alone which will almost certainly result in their being at risk of poverty. What are the time dimensions of the proposed further consultations?

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