Derek McDowell (Labour)

I thank the Minister for his response and do not wish to dispute further the figures he has produced.

Will the Minister comment on the finding in his Department's review that essentially, these approved retirement funds, the ARFs, were not being used to produce an income flow, that only 6% of all ARFs in existence had been disturbed, in terms of distributions taken from them, and that most seemed to have been in terms of the lower value funds, with the upper value funds remaining untouched? The stark conclusion of the report is that ARFs have allowed the diversion of retirement provision into simple tax-advantage savings schemes for those who do not need to produce a regular income statement or stream.

The conclusion from the Department's own review is that ARFs are not being used at all for the purpose for which they were intended. That must surely be a source of concern to us all.