Madam, – In the current economic turmoil it seems crazy that the Government is hell-bent on discouraging retirement savings, part of the bedrock of any successful economy. I’m referring specifically to the Government’s intention to reduce income tax relief on pensions from 41 per cent to 20 per cent by 2014. This is classic short-term thinking by an unpopular Government on its way out.
As a successful pensions communicator it seems to me that the Government is sending out all the wrong messages to working people. Pensions cover in Ireland is shockingly low at 54 per cent and the Government should be doing more to defuse the pension time-bomb and encourage retirement provision. This disturbing statistic, coupled with the fact that the National Pension Reserve Fund is being looted to the value of €10 billion as part of the EU-IMF bailout, does not bode well for the country’s economic sustainability in the long run. – Yours, etc,