Almost one million people in the State face having to live on €9,000 a year when they retire if the issue of pensions is not addressed, the Minister for Social Affairs Seamus Brennan warned today.
Speaking at the Irish Association of Pension Funds annual benefits conference in Dublin, Mr Brennan said he had an open mind on whether or not pensions should be made mandatory.
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"We do not yet have a looming pension's crisis" - Minister for Social Welfare Seamus Brennan |
He said it was "possible that some type of mandatory provision will emerge" from a review being carried out by the Pensions Board. He said he expected to receive that review next month.
"At that stage I will decide, in consultation with my colleagues in Government, how best to proceed," he said.
"At the end of the day, our objective is to have a pensions system which we can afford and sustain and one that will deliver adequate incomes to people in retirement."
Mr Brennan said that "unlike so many other countries, we do not yet have a looming pension's crisis."
"However, if left unchecked the consequences in the years ahead for hundreds of thousands of older people, the State and the pensions industry itself, will be daunting. Some 900,000 people in the State do not have a private or occupational pension. "Unless this trend is aggressively addressed and reversed then hundreds of thousands of people face into a retirement on the basic social welfare pension of €9,000 a year."
Mr Brennan said that he had signed the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORPs) EU Directive. The regulations come into effect from tomorrow. The Directive sets out a framework for the operation and supervision of occupational pension schemes in all member states and aims to facilitate pan-European pension plans.
