It is quite normal in the run-up to budgets for people to posture and take up various positions. Generally around this time there tends to be a concerted attack on the public service - we see it with every budget - but I wonder whether it is more orchestrated this time. I am not quite sure from where it is coming, but we seem to have some outrageous statements being made just as the Minister is establishing a commission to inquire into the issue of public service pay. The question of public service pensions has been given a new dynamic in this debate. I read in today's newspaper that it is now considered that anybody who retires at the age of 60 years on a Civil Service pension is a millionaire because, in theory, it would cost €1 million to purchase the pension he or she will receive. That totally skews reality because everybody knows public servants, be they nurses, teachers, gardaí or whoever else, contribute to their pensions throughout their working lives. They are soft targets for the Exchequer in everything and must pay for everything. They pay their taxes. A public servant can never say he or she cannot or will not pay because someone in the public service will pay and that is a fact. I sympathise greatly with what Senator David Norris said about self-employed persons and their pensions. I know because I was that soldier. I paid into a private pension scheme when I was self-employed and can tell the House that it was a bottomless pit. Whatever entitlements one may have on the social welfare side are being eroded; therefore, to make a long story short, one is shovelling into two bottomless pits.

It is widely felt by staff in the public service that the FEMPI legislation measures which have impacted tremendously on their living standards in the past seven or eight years and their pensions should be unwound. Public sector pensions are considered to be a type of hidden crock of gold available to all public sector workers. They have paid all their working lives for everything and contributed massively to their pensions while trying to raise young families and so on. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, is no fool. I am sure he will see through all of this rubbish and ensure the commission will be properly chaired and produce a good report.