Mary White (Fianna Fail)

How much time each Senator gets depends on who is sitting in the Chair.

The issue has been raised as regards tax relief on private pensions. Looking at the €1.5 billion a year it is costing at face value, there is no doubt that a pension of €200 a week, the target rate for 2007, is a totally inadequate income for anybody to live on. Imaginative inducements must be provided to people to take out private pensions. However, to reduce the high rates of tax relief for those who pay into private pension schemes, would be a no-go area as it would remove an incentive which would not be appreciated. We want to encourage people to save, work or do whatever they do. It would be wrong to lower the income tax relief rate from 42% to 20%, especially in the context of seeking to encourage people to make an effort to address pension provision.

Pensions is a complex issue. I agree with Senator Ross's comments about the greed of people in large corporations, whom we constantly read about in the newspapers, for whom contributions are provided by the companies for their retirement. That is totally unjust and wrong.

This issue is a major challenge for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Brennan, but I am confident he will take it on. People are pleased to hear him airing this issue. They listen when they are told of approximately 1 million people doing badly in terms of their pension provision, something they find difficult to believe.

I wish the Minister continued success. It will take some months to devise a correct policy and it will not be easy. However, the bottom line is how people may be encouraged to participate in private pension schemes. They must realise they must prepare for the time when they are over 65 year of age to avoid disappointment that they cannot have the same standard of living in retirement. I apologise to the Acting Chairman for speaking beyond my allocated time.