Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The manner in which this is structured would not give confidence to anybody. It is another broken promise that the pension levy would terminate in 2014. The gang of four do the finances and impose all of this on the Minister and the Minister for Health and it will come back to haunt the Government when health cuts are made in the middle of next year. Leaving that aside, next year the pension levy will be 0.75%. Given the broken promises, it seems inevitable that the levy of 0.15% will continue the following year and I reckon it will be increased to meet any requirement or shortfall. That seems to be the logical structure of the legislation and it is my opinion that this is exactly what the Government will do. What we need in this area is a degree of certainty. There is too much sophistry with regard to these policies. It would be far better to state where we were going. The one thing which destabilises the markets and undermines consumer confidence is uncertainty. People must be able to rely on what is being said. It was very clearly stated this was a four year levy, but that is no longer the case, which is unfortunate. I invite the Minister to say what I am stating is true and that this is what will happen, or that it is not true and will not happen. Too much uncertainty is being created and it is deterring people from making their own private pension arrangements, which is very sad. There is no cohesion between Government policies. The Government's policy on health insurance is disastrous and the health insurance industry is haemorrhaging policyholders. It is extraordinary.