Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Many of the modern schemes, particularly the PRSAs, are finely tuned. If people begin making contributions when they are sufficiently young and in light of tax relief and the purchasing of annuities, there is quite an amount of scope involved. The alternative would be to go completely down the State-funded road and give everyone in the country a State pension. That is a major philosophical debate in which we would be obliged to engage and I hope we may do so in the context of the Green Paper.

In the meantime, I must deal with matters as they stand. In that regard, I take the view that it is better to have pension provision and work towards ensuring that this is as secure as possible and that people obtain the best possible returns. I accept that many people are making their own arrangements by investing in property, apartments, etc., which is quite legitimate. However, I must give a great deal of consideration to ensuring that the 900,000 working people to whom I refer have in place some pension provision when they reach 65 or 66 years of age.