Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

There are more and more of these posts. In the Taoiseach's office there are four such appointments, at a cost to the taxpayer of €440,000. I want to know if these people are qualified.

The Bill is important. It reaffirms the wish of the people concerning the 29th amendment to the Constitution but it does not go far enough in cutting pension payments to former officeholders and former senior civil servants. I ask the Minister of State to look again at the provision in regard to any person who has a pension of more than €100,000. I wish to put on the record that contributions have been made by these individuals. However, the pension figures are too high. The Department must look again at the pension structure. I would be more than happy to send the document I wrote in January 2009 to the Minister of State. It is even more valid now. It was lamentable that it was not implemented at the time but it should be done now.

Health professionals must be taken into the net. I would like some indication from the Minister of State or his Department as to why they are exempted and what will be done about that.

The Bill is welcome for what it does but it does not go far enough. When we are dealing with changes to day-to-day, current expenditure, it is easy to forget about the future pension liabilities of the State and the problems in this regard coming down the track. Every year the State pension and public pension bill gets worse. We need to get to grips with this. The sooner it is changed, the sooner the State's liabilities will be addressed.