Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 January 2014
107. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of meetings of the Interdepartmental Working and Retirement Group that have taken place since February 2011; and the agenda for each of those meetings. [4778/14]
View answer108. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 319 of 20 March 2013, the proposals that have been made by the interdepartmental working and retirement group. [4779/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 107 and 108 together.
The Interdepartmental Working and Retirement Group was established in August 2012 to consider cross departmental policy issues that may support longer working and thereby improve the sustainability and adequacy of pensions systems.
The sustainability of the pension system is a particular concern because of the demographic challenges Ireland faces, the associated increases in pension (and other age related) costs, and the deterioration in the public finances. This means that, in the future, the task of financing increased pension spending will fall to a diminishing share of the working population as demographic projections indicate the ratio of working age to older people will decrease from 5.3 to 1 at present to 2.1 to 1 by 2060. Life expectancy in Ireland is also increasing and whilst this is very welcome development, this also has obvious and significant implications in relation to the future costs of State pension provision. The fundamental principle involved here is that people need to participate in the workforce for longer and they need to contribute more towards their pensions if they are to achieve the income they expect or would like to have in retirement.
The Interdepartmental Group was chaired by the Department of Social Protection and included representatives from the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, the Department of Justice and Equality, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Pensions Board. Further engagement was also undertaken with the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health and Children.
The Group met on four occasions which included a ‘Forum on Working and Retirement’ which was held in Croke Park in December 2012. The purpose of this forum was to obtain views from representative bodies and stakeholders and identify the wide ranging issues linked to working and retirement prior to the development of any possible policy proposals. Attendees included employer and employee representative groups, older people’s representative groups, representatives from the pensions industry, academic commentators and representatives from the legal profession.
The agenda for the Group’s meetings included consideration of the broad range of issues impacting on the labour market participation of older workers; enterprise issues, employment and equality law issues; proposals regarding deferral of the state pension, consideration of occupational pension issues. Several other meetings were held within the Department of Social Protection in furthering the work on this topic.
The Group has examined a number of proposals which may encourage participation and retention in the labour market of older workers and these are currently being considered.
