Ciarán Cannon (Fine Gael)

As the Minister might expect, I am not happy with that response. TASC produced a report on the success or otherwise of PRSAs only a couple of weeks ago. It concluded that the scheme has not been successful and there has been a high dropout rate.

It was somewhat disconcerting to hear the Minister state earlier that - I apologise if I do not quote him accurately - sometimes a Minister for Finance prepares a finance Bill, throws it out into the ether and awaits a response from certain sectors of the industry in an auction-type process. This is not the way to prepare a finance Bill. There are 20 officials sitting in the ante-room to the Chamber who are assisting and aiding the Minister and I expect they have been closely involved in the preparation of the budget in recent months. It is strange that the consultation process with the pensions sector that would have identified this anomaly early on did not take place before the introduction of the Bill.

The Minister is a skilled orator, on which I congratulate him, but he often unintentionally tends to drift away from the core argument of a particular amendment. I will ask him two simple questions and would appreciate two straightforward answers. Does he believe the imposition of the universal service charge on the employer PRSA contribution to be unjust? A yes or no response would suffice. Second, if it is unjust, does he believe it can be amended by a short one or two-line amendment in this House today?