The Pension System in Ireland: Current Issues and Reform

Sinéad Pentony: The TCD Pension Policy Research Group has recently published a Working Paper written by Jim Stewart called The Pension System in Ireland: Current Issues and Reform.

The paper provides a very useful overview of the key features of the Irish pension system and it examines five key issues:
• The sources of income of retired persons.
• The value of pension fund assets.
• The National Pension Reserve Fund.
• Implications for pension funds of the rise in long bond yields.
• Policy responses and reform.

The paper highlights the inadequacy of recent policy responses and reforms in dealing with the structural problems in our pension system which have been brought into sharp focus by the financial and economic crises. The need for fundamental reform of our pension system and the development of a new model of pension provision has been highlighted by TASC and the TCD Pension Policy Research Group.