Ireland cannot afford to be complacent about pensions, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy said today.
Speaking at an ICTU conference on occupational pension schemes he said that pensions are an issue that Ireland must deal with immediately.
According to Mr McCreevy, public service and social welfare pensions now cost the Exchequer about 5 per cent of GNP. Maintaining the present level of provision is expected to cost about 8 per cent of GNP in 2026 and about 12.5 per cent of GNP in 2056.
A recent study of population projections published by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs showed that, in 2001, there were about 430,000 people of pension age in Ireland: this is estimated to rise to 673,000 in 2021 and to 1.2 million in 2056.
Mr McCreevy said that as a result of this, the ratio of people of working age to people over pension age falls from 5.3 in 2001 to just 1.8 in 2056.
"Ireland is not immediately facing the same kind of severe demographic problems which confront many of our EU and OECD partners now. Their failure to prepare in good times has forced them to introduce the type of measures to curtail pension costs which led to major protests in France and Austria in recent weeks," said Mr McCreevy.
"I am concerned, however, that many people in Ireland may be complacent about the future. We cannot afford to be complacent. Only by adopting the correct policy decisions now will we be able to avoid the difficulties being experienced by countries like France and Austria," warned Mr McCreevy.He added that the cost of pensions was a major issue for Irish society and that it must be tackled.