John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. The IGEES report is interesting. I am conscious of the students in the Public Gallery who might be wondering why we are talking about demographics and what is important about them, but the Minister touched on the reason in his response. It is a question of how his Department and the Government are trying to consider the various age groups' impact on how the Government plans to spend its money in the years to come. There are some interesting facts. In 2016, the largest population age cohort was between 35 and 39 years. Pretty much all of them would have been working, fit and well. However, estimates for the 2031 population pyramid set the largest cohort at between 50 and 54 years.

Just six weeks ago when the Minister was preparing for the budget, he did not anticipate that there would be any significant change in his plans as they related to demographics. That change has turned out to be an underestimate of €60 million. He did not anticipate that change.

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