Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Like I said, these are debates worth having because the composition of families and households has changed significantly in our country in relatively recent times. Sometimes schemes and legislation can take time to catch up with that changing reality. These are always issues that we, as legislators and policymakers, should scrutinise.

When that opt-out was ended quite a number of years ago, long before my time in government, the grounds were also expanded to include more categories through which more people could benefit but I am open to correction on that. There is a broader point that two citizens could pay into a whole variety of schemes, including PRSI and the likes, and then at the end of a lifetime when you tot it up, one person may have derived more benefit from it than the other. We are not a private company in that sense. We pay into the central pot for the benefit of having that safety net and the provision of services and the likes. Let me reflect on what the Deputy has said today and revert to him directly.

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