Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the adequacy of provision for pension liabilities in the public sector; and the policy options open to him. [38747/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Total expenditure on public service pensions in 2007 was of the order of €2.3bn and the most recent projections carried out by the Department of Finance are for expenditure on public service pensions to increase from around 1.3% of GDP in 2007 to 2.1% in 2025 and to 2.6% by 2050. The projected increase arises from the growth in public service employment in recent years and from increasing longevity. Measures to contain the cost of this increase in public service pensions have been put in place in recent years and policy options for further reform are outlined in the Green Paper on Pensions. These policy options are now being examined in the context of preparing a framework for comprehensively addressing the pensions agenda over the long term.