Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to begin by supporting every word our colleague, Senator Black, said regarding Palestine, an issue raised by Senator Ó Donnghaile yesterday. I have visited Palestine and seen first-hand the horrors of apartheid. Let me be clear, it is an apartheid state. Many fine Jewish activists also acknowledged that, including organisations like B'Tselem. We know what we need to do, and Senator Black has called it out. When we have a seat at the UN, it would be wonderful if we took action and supported the occupied territories Bill to make concrete moves to support the Palestinians in the way they desperately need.

I welcome the joint committee report on pensions being launched at 12.30 p.m. It is a comprehensive report. It is great to see the report has been delivered on an all-party basis. It makes clear calls regarding keeping the pension age at 66. It gives clear alternatives on how to fund pensions into the future. It would be very useful if we had a debate in the wake of this report so that we could engage on this issue in a way that is helpful.

As part of the committee, I discovered that each year we sign off on €2.4 billion of a subsidy for private pensions and, shockingly, 50% of that amount, or €1.2 billion, benefits just 5% of people utilising those subsidies. The richest 5% of the population takes €1.2 billion each year in taxpayer subsidies. If we are serious about pensions justice, surely we should start with recognising that as fundamentally unfair, standardise reliefs and use the money to support our social welfare system. I call for a debate on the matter.