Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I welcome the tabling of this motion this evening. It is stark in its simplicity. I am more than a little surprised that an amendment to it has been tabled. I would have thought everyone in the House would have welcomed the publication of a Green Paper and the consultation process accompanying it. It is clear we must prepare for the future. Policies are in place which are beginning to address this matter and we need a national debate to define how we make the journey from now.

Much was said about the future demographic difficulties. I prefer to be more positive in this regard. In European terms, we remain a young country and during recent years we have had immigration to our country. Both of these factors mean our dependency ratio is much better than more established European countries such as Germany and Italy. That said, we must provide for future pensions and how we go about it will determine the livelihoods of those, including ourselves, who will be older in future years.

We need to have a debate on having either State or private pensions or the best combination of both. In recent years, we struggled with getting this balance right. On the State pension side, major progress has been made from the old £100 to €200 to the projected €300 and beyond. We are fast catching up with the rates of pension provision found in other countries and keeping in line with 30% of average income, which is a policy objective as a result of the partnership agreement. We also fail to factor in to the State pension the ancillary benefits which accrue such as free travel, electricity, gas and television licences. When these are factored in, we come closer again. That said, issues of equity must still be tackled and I hope the consultation process will address these.

The issues of women having separate social insurance records and being obliged to leave the public service in the recent past were raised by other speakers. These must be addressed through improvement of the non-contributory pension. It must be acknowledged that steps were taken in most of the recent budgets to address this anomaly. I look forward to it being addressed again in the forthcoming budget.

The situation with regard to private pensions should be scrutinised carefully. I take a more dubious view of the talk of impending meltdown in the pensions service which is informed by a vested interest in the private pension industry itself. Those of us in the political process need to take due regard of the fact that our primary responsibility is to ensure the State pension is properly resourced now and in future.

Previously I stated the support measures which exist to encourage private pension take-up are badly in need of examination. Although it is the mainstay of current policy, I do not believe the use of tax relief is the most effective way of bringing it about. That the State now forgoes more in tax than it pays in State pensions while supporting private pensions is not a statistic in which we can take pride. It is useful that the Green Paper points out alternatives we can follow in addressing this anomaly.

In opening the debate, Senator O'Malley discussed the SSIA proposal. My party made similar suggestions in the past and had such suggestions included in the Green Paper. We should go towards the idea of a long-term savings plan where the benefit is targeted towards the lower paid. The modification we can make to encourage future pension take-up is that the payback of such a special savings scheme should have higher amounts for people on lower incomes tapering down for people saving on higher amounts. Accepting this principle could address the difficulties we saw in the past with the take up of the PRSA.

I welcome the fact the Minister is addressing this issue with sufficient gusto and is giving commitments that the consultation process will be advanced to a major extent by next July. If we stick to this timetable, whether it is accompanied by a White Paper or promises of specific legislation, we can look forward to putting in place reforms of the pension system during the lifetime of this Government, a system which has gone unchanged for too long. A generation of people need a reformed system put in place.

I welcome this debate and congratulate the Progressive Democrats on tabling the motion. I look forward to the House in its entirety accepting the motion which, in its stark simplicity, is a sufficient statement for the House to make without resorting to amendments.