Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their co-operation and support. This is transformational legislation. It will affect many of the workers of tomorrow and of today. I was speaking to a group of schoolchildren this morning. They were 16 and 17. It will impact on their lives down the road. It will also impact future generations. It took 25 years to get this far, so I compliment everyone on helping me to get it to this point. I particularly thank my officials because this was a massive piece of work. It is a very long Bill. There is a great deal going on behind the scenes as we speak. I really thank those involved and the joint committee, which put a lot of work into its deliberations. We were able to take on board most of the recommendations. There were a couple we could not accept but we took many on board.

In response to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, we have a communications strategy ready to go for when the legislation is passed. There is a budget to accompany that because the most important thing is that people understand it. The Bill is complex but, simply put, it is about saving a little now for when you retire. When you get close to retirement, you will be damn glad that you have that pot ready because, even though the State pension is and will remain the bedrock of our pensions system, it is a big drop in income for some people. They go from working full-time to drawing that State pension and this measure will bridge that gap.

I thank everybody for their co-operation and for the amendments they brought forward. While I could not accept them all, discussing them gave us an opportunity to tease matters out further.

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