Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It cannot be very big and expensive. It will be just a governance agency, responsible for the regulations and ensuring the fiduciary responsibilities are being met by the providers of the pension pot.

I am not sure whether the Deputy is aware from the memorandum I brought forward but there is a cap of 0.5% on all administrative costs. That includes the running of the central processing authority and all the fees that can be charged by the public or private offerings that will be on the carousel.

The Revenue is an authoritative and well-respected agency of the country and it collects tax, but this is not a tax. This is a savings scheme that is being incentivised by employers and the State. It is not the same thing. What we certainly do not want is to have people of the perception that the Government or the State is taking more money out of their wages in some form of tax. This is something that we hope people will want to do. We hope people will see the value of their investment and of their investment being matched by their employer's investment and the top-up of the savings scheme by the State. This is a really good thing. It will cost a significant amount of money. It will be a large investment pot of money which it is hoped will remain in Ireland. However, it has to have the feel-good factor of people putting in their money and seeing it matched by the employer with a top-up by the State. All of this is with a view to having extra money in their back pockets when they reach retirement age.

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