Vol. 513 No. 2
38 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the progress, if any, on the introduction of personal retirement savings accounts; and when his Department's report on the matter will be laid before Dáil Éireann. [1915/00]
The Pensions Board's report Securing Retirement Income, arising out of the National Pensions Policy Initiative, was published in May 1998. At the time of publication of the report, I set out the Government's response in "Action on Pensions," a copy of which was furnished to each Deputy at the time. This response generally welcomed the broad thrust of the proposals and commented on the key recommendations.
Overall, the recommendations in the board's report involve the development of strong first pillar social welfare pensions, based on social insurance, and major improvements in our second pillar, occupational and personal pensions, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that 70% of those at work over the age of 30 have second pillar cover as compared to just under 50% at present. The board inter alia recommended the introduction of a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) framework to achieve this increase in coverage.
The PRSA is envisaged by the board as a low-cost, easy access personal investment account designed to allow people, regardless of their employment status, to save for retirement in a flexible manner. A working group, chaired by my Department and comprising representatives of the Departments of Finance, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Revenue Commissioners and the Pensions Board, has made good progress to date in examining the many detailed issues relating to the PRSA framework. The working group held a series of consultative meetings with potential PRSA providers which served to further inform the group on the technical and operational issues relating to the development of a framework. In this regard, the group is now finalising a document setting out the proposed framework for PRSAs and the issues surrounding these for my consideration. I would hope to bring forward proposals in this regard in the context of an occupational Pensions Bill, which I plan to publish later this year.
