Jimmy Harte (Labour)

I am delighted the Senator asked it because we can follow it up at a future date.

Senator Crown raised the issue of the tax on pension funds. I was in business for many years and I have spoken to many retailers and small business owners throughout the country. They are not concerned about whether the tax is 0.6%, 0.8% or 0.1% on their pension fund but about whether they can afford to put money in. Many of them have stopped contributing to their pensions because they cannot afford it. It is a shame because they are not making profits and cannot pay into their pension schemes for their retirement. Certain occupations are not affected by the recession and those engaged in them feel aggrieved by the tax but if a small business owner is asked whether he or she would rather have his or her pension fund taxed at 0.6% to bring jobs on stream or have no tax on, they would prefer to have pension schemes contribute to stimulating job creation. Unless jobs come on stream, the small business man will go out of business and, therefore, it will be irrelevant to him whether he has a pension fund. It must be recognised that taking money out of pension funds may affect the pockets of some people but, in the overall scheme of things, if it generates jobs and brings people back into shops, hotels and other businesses, it is a good idea.

There is major demand for passports, particularly at this time of year. It might be an idea to stagger the renewal periods for passports. If my passport is issued today, it will be up for renewal this day five years or ten years. The renewal date should be deferred to October or November rather than having a glut of renewals in June and July when people are going on holidays. Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade consider the staggering of passport renewals?