Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)

That goes to the heart of the question here, which is around the digital literacy of the individuals we are putting into this scheme. I am very concerned there is no plan for what we are going to guide people with in terms of the lump sum they will get at the end of the scheme. For those people in their 50s or 60s approaching retirement age who will get that lump sum, there seems to be no pathway to how they would account for the pension provision or ensure they are not taking risky decisions or making inappropriate use of those funds.

There is also a question around the overall structure of the fund and I want to keep an eye on that over the course of its implementation. I completely accept the NTMA could not handle 750,000 individuated pension scheme accounts. There is a question, however, around the pooling of risk. How will it be possible to ensure those 750,000 individuated accounts would be treated as a larger pension scheme guided by the State so it will be possible to ensure there will be lower volatility for investment returns for those individuals and the pension provision is secure for the future?

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