Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We use the mechanism relating to reports because that is the restriction placed on Opposition spokespersons. However, I agree with the Minister that we do not need more reports as we have the data. We have the data that indicates that the 1% in the State, the top earners who earn more than €250,000, some of whom earn far more than €1 million, are availing of massive pension tax reliefs at a cost to the Exchequer that ordinary workers cannot access because they do not have the resources to put into their pension at that level. We are funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of euro gold-plated pensions. That should stop. I have long argued with the Minister that this can be done in terms of the standard fund threshold and the earning limits. There are ways and mechanisms to ensure that the distributional impact of the large support we put in place for people in terms of pension tax reliefs are not completely skewed to the 1%. I regret that the Minister has not taken action on this either this year or any other year. For that reason I press this amendment.

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