Compulsory pensions are still on the table, according to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) in Dublin Castle yesterday, the Minister said all methods of increasing pension coverage must be considered, including the mandatory route.

"I know several people have spoken out and advised me that a mandatory system is not the answer," Mr Brennan said, but he argued that all options must be debated and investigated fully.

"We have a responsibility to find some way of ensuring that those 900,000 people out there without pensions will have decent incomes in retirement," he said.

Senior officials in the Minister's department are compiling a Green Paper that will set out the main pension policy choices available to the Government. The paper will be delivered within the coming months, but it is unlikely that a final decision will be made on the issue until after the next general election.

Brendan Johnston, pensions director at Eagle Star, warned that the introduction of a mandatory scheme would carry "a huge amount of risk" and could cause the entire pensions system to fall apart.

He suggested that a system of auto-enrolment, also known as soft-mandatory, would be a more effective way of addressing the current shortfall in pension coverage.

Such a system would see people automatically enrolled in a pension scheme when they join work, but gives them the option to opt out within a certain period.

IAPF chairman Joe Byrne also expressed concern over making pensions mandatory. "While we fully support finding means of increasing pensions coverage, we are not yet convinced that mandatory is the best way of achieving this."