What Noonan is now saying about the Pensions Levy: 2014

[noproblem]

One has the distinction of having been fired from the top position, the other is waiting in line for the exact same fate. With Enda, if he waits there until the next election he will not be elected by the voters in Mayo, that will make it interesting indeed.

 

[Steven Barrett]

Yes I possibly am being optimistic, or indeed naive to think that a Government Minister would keep his word, given that he didn't before. And I take your point that he didn't quite say that the levy would end after 2015. And he didn't quite say that it wouldn't.

In my view, if you have to hide behind verbal sleight of hand and cunning word-play like this, rather than being open and direct, it says a lot about your character.

He was asked if the levy was going to be continued indefinitely. That's a fairly straight question. He replied by saying that he had no plans to change it, thus slithering away from giving the straight answer it deserved.

Olivia Mitchell said she has been assured that the levy will end in 2015.

But reading the reply to the Ministerial question, he says:

"This additional levy within the existing legal framework will apply to pension fund assets in 2014 and 2015"

You just know he'll create a new legal framework and then claim to have kept it's word. But if it walks like a duck...


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie