Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I had not intended contributing on this section, mainly because I would have been interested to hear the Minister's comments on other sections. My good friend and colleague, Senator Bradford, either by accident or design has now effectively talked out the Bill on just one section. We are all entitled to make contributions.

The Government which had Mr. Charlie McCreevy as Minister for Finance recognised what became known, colloquially, as a pensions time bomb by introducing the pensions reserve fund, which has been tossed around like a political football prior to and subsequent to the election. Sinn Féin would like to take €7 billion from it for an economic stimulus and I would love to know how the party sees that as helping matters.