Results 3,021-3,040 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am a bit older than most people here, but if I go back and look at what seemed like a large sum in 1980, it would look like joke money today. I will put this in an even more scary way. I keep all the Government Estimates for 2002 in my office. The amounts were tiny and the inflation rate is huge. The figures the Department gave were not that impressive at all when a constant rate of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: There was a proposal ten years ago to standardise tax relief at 33%. That meant if a person were paying 20% or 40% tax, he or she would receive 33% tax relief. The advantage of that was the people at the bottom end of the wages scale were not, once again, being hit. What the union representative is saying is that the State contribution is not going to be anything real. Most people who...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is one factor.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I made a choice that turned out to be very fortuitous. I was in precarious enough employment as it was, but surviving was more important than worrying about what would happen when I got to 65 years. As it happened, I did not have to worry. I am still working at 65. I took a big risk in one way, but then I did own my house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is probably true, but the people on the low end of the surviving gig are people who would see the greatest pension would be to get a property. They would be very tempted anyway. When they get to 66, the State will say "Tough, you did not take the option." The great thing about PRSI is that it has to be paid as it is mandatory. I see this more as an industry-led gig than being State-led.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Which it is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department and the Government were involved in this process, but the Oireachtas was not. We do not have to buy in. We can write any report we like. We can go back and say the original model put forward by ICTU was correct, whereby it would be State controlled. The CPA is all fine and good, but all the people from outside on it, advising the Government and so on, will be from the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am saying the employer, the employee and the State should contribute, given the State is the basic payer in any event, to this------

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I might put it in simpler terms. Are the Nordic and continental Europe models, which provide for State occupational pensions, better?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We could leave them as they are. They are not part of the auto-enrolment.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am not saying every pension; I am saying there would be a State pension-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: -----but an auto-enrolment State pension, or an auto-enrolment State occupational pension, as Mr. Berney is calling it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: This has opened up an interesting debate. There is a long way to go on this, and if anyone tries to rush it, the committee has to stand firm and look at every angle. We are putting a lot of money aside for 32 years' time. Many things can go wrong in that timescale, even things people think they have legislated against. There is an attraction with putting in now and the State paying out...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is very common in-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Europe does the same thing. I used to say about the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform that they built in 10% that they would negotiate and the other 90% of the final document was the original consultation document.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is exactly the debate we needed to have today. I am glad Mr. Berney made that clear statement. Just because they come in with a Bill and have fixed on a model does not mean the only thing we can do is tinker at the edges. We can look at it as ab initio because we never had it before. This is a Government proposal but not an Oireachtas proposal. We can say, "No, go back and reshape...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, we have been asking hard questions, but the British economy post Brexit is much more introverted, so the likelihood is they are going to invest a much higher percentage of these funds within the island of Britain than we are. It happens in Ireland to a point, and on that point, one of the arguments we are making is, if we are going to be sucking money out of the Irish economy, whether...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill: Discussion (7 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, but we could also go back and tell the Government to think it out again and go for a State model. My question is whether the witnesses are convinced the State model is not the optimal one? We have never seen this previously. We have never had any of this kind of legislation in front of us as a committee previously. Is Mr. Berney's view that the optimal model is the State one or is he...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: An Garda Síochána (6 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 28. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if any consideration or discussion has taken place with her or with her Department in relation to arming uniformed members of an Garda Síochána; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60518/22]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Prison Service (6 Dec 2022)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 33. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps she intends taking to tackle overcrowding in our female prisons in Dublin and Limerick; if it is intended to provide an open centre with addiction support services for those for whom such a centre would be more appropriate than a conventional prison; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60517/22]