Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for bringing forward these amendments. Unfortunately, I do not propose to accept them. On the amendment in respect of a report on a universal pension, this issue does not come within the scope of the Bill. The national automatic enrolment retirement savings authority, NAERSA, will have no remit to consider such a proposal. In any event, a report is not necessary because this matter was considered and reported on by the Commission on Pensions as recently as 2021. The commission concluded that the cost of moving to a fully universal basic pension could potentially be an additional €2 billion to €3 billion depending on the design and that it would require fundamental changes right across the tax and social insurance systems as currently conceived. The commission also endorsed the early introduction of an automatic enrolment system to improve retirement income adequacy for future pensioners. Senator Burke is correct. Changing or removing tax relief on pensions would result in a considerable wage cut for middle-income workers. Tax relief is a tax policy matter and is not relevant to this Bill.

With regard to the second amendment, as carers are not employees and are not earning an income provided by an employer through a payroll facility, automatic enrolment will not apply to them during the initial implementation phase. However, it is envisaged that, as the automatic enrolment system matures, the new authority will examine the possibility of extending automatic enrolment to other cohorts of the population such as carers. I cannot support these amendments.

In regard to women, nearly 400,000 women will have access to a pension for the first time, supported by their employers and the State through automatic enrolment.