Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a Government matter and this is a Government policy. It is a pension policy matter. The fact that we continually refuse to talk about the tax relief is a bad sign that it might not stand up. We are talking about the State and how we plan for the future of the population. In respect of constantly talking about tax relief and saying that the commission cannot talk about it - we could not talk about it today when we raised the issue in the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach - it seems that they do not want to talk about it in comparison to what we are spending on other aspects of pensions. The Minister is a Minister in a Government and we are addressing collective problems that not just the Government but all of us in Parliament want to address around ensuring a secure future for our population so if something is deeply relevant, it needs to be addressed at some point. It is regrettable that there is still an unwillingness because I believe everyone knows it will not stand up if the Minister looks at it besides giving a knee-jerk response of "I know someone who benefits from it" or "this is one that is useful to a lot of people". If the Government were to make the hard decisions that a Government must make about what is the best way to spend our money, it would see that this private pension tax relief looks pretty ropy. Instead, we are putting all the pressure everywhere else. We are trying to up the contributions from net 30 years to net 40 years. Everybody else is working around this elephant in the room. I do not apologise for raising it and will continue to raise it.

In some of my later amendments, I hope to touch on the gender equality issues again. I asked if there was a timeline around the issue of care and the Minister mentioned that it may be addressed at a later stage. Is there a timeline for when that might be addressed? I will come back in some of my later amendments on the question of gender equality. Besides the aspiration that it might be addressed by this measure, I would like to know what the indicators are and how it is going to tracked. If a gender equality issue emerges from the scheme, what are the ways it might be addressed? I may come back to some of those issues in some of my later amendments. If the Minister could add something on the timeline for care, that would be really useful. The Minister indicated that there are plans in the future to consider incorporating care and I would like to know what the timeline might be on that.