Taoiseach Enda Kenny will consider a call by Independent TD Shane Ross to investigate what the former senator described as the “goldmine”, “gravy train” and “swamp” of pension fund managers.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Mr Ross said that "in view of the fact that there is a whole industry looting pensions and benefiting from this" the Government should put a cap
on the fees pension fund managers charge and then put "a 50 per cent tax on these people which would have certainly produced a figure very close to the €470 million which they've come up with as a jobs creation fund".
Mr Ross criticised the Government plan to put a 0.6 per cent levy on pension funds for four years with the aim of raising €1.88 billion in total over that period to fund its jobs initiative.
The Independent TD described the pensions industry as a "goldmine, a gravy train for a large number of people". But he said "the Government has hit the contributors and the victims" of fund managers, rather "than tackling those who are milking the pensions' industry itself".
Mr Ross said "this is a swamp of hidden fees, upfront fees and riches for people who actually do not deliver to the people they're milking" but who earn from €250 million to €500 million a year from Irish pensions.
The Taoiseach said there "may well be some merit" in Mr Ross's proposal.
"The Government took its decision in this case to impose the levy in this way for a temporary period and has pointed out the reasons why that was done and the opportunities that are going to spring from it."
Mr Kenny added: "The question that you ask about alternatives to what the Government actually did is certainly a matter than can be considered by the finance committee" and in the Dail in the run up to the 2012 Budget.
He told Mr Ross: "You make a valid point about elements of swamps being associated with some of these industries and I will transfer you require to the Minister for Finance. I do believe this is a matter that should be looked at."
The Taoiseach said that obviously "the costs associated from an administration point of view by the pensions' industry could certainly be reduced to something approaching those costs that apply in the UK which are a fraction of what they are here".