John Crown (Independent)

-----using different rules. Will the Minister consider amending current pension law to allow people in negative equity and who are in danger of losing their home many years before they can access their pension funds, to be given premature access to that fund? This would give the Minister tax revenue and it would improve liquidity in the banks and reduce personal debt.

Will the Minister consider ending the practice of mandatory retirement in the public service which is age-based? I belatedly congratulate the Minister on his 68th birthday last May. I note he is a vigorous, fit, very active man but if he were a consultant neurologist or psychiatrist he would have been caring for his roses for the past three years, which would have been a terrible waste for this country.