Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Social Protection has only three boards and representation of women on those boards is exceptionally strong. The Department contributes extensively to the Government meeting the overall requirement of 40% in gender representation of either gender. We will advertise the positions on the pensions council under the Public Appointments Service as vacancies on the Citizens Information Board have been advertised. We are looking for people with relevant skills and some people with specialist knowledge, experience or expertise to enable them to carry out their functions. I anticipate these would be the sort of people who would have the relevant experience the Senator indicated.

It is not necessary, however, to provide in law for particular stakeholder representation. The Pensions Board has always met Government policy on gender balance on State boards and this will be a priority consideration. The new pensions council will not be a paid body so there will be savings of up to €100,000 by the replacement of paid board members with unpaid representatives.

We will seek a board with a good balance, particularly those who are interested in achieving the sort of outcomes referred to by Senator Mooney, namely: transparency; value for money in pensions; and strong information about the necessity for people to have a supplementary pension, that simply relying on the State pension, good as it is in Ireland compared to other jurisdictions, particularly Britain, should be discouraged to allow people when they retire to enjoy a standard of living that allows for comfort and decency.