Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

People with fairly large earnings are benefiting substantially from the reliefs. To my mind, fairness requires a different model that addresses this situation where the bulk of the reliefs go to higher earners. Unlike some, I am not proposing standard rating because that would still hit workers in the middle. Something that we proposed was reducing the pensions earning limit from €115,000 to €60,000. According to our costings, this would generate €220 million, which could be used to benefit lower earners by increasing their pension entitlements. This matter needs to be examined.

Am I correct in taking from what the Minister said that he does not quite know what the distribution of the pension reliefs across the various bands is? If so, it seems that this amendment is timely because it sets out that we need that information so that we can make an informed decision about how we structure pension-related reliefs or, more generally, come to a better and fairer model of funding pensions.