Minister for Social Protection to open consultation on future of State pension

Regina Doherty says ‘total contribution approach’ requires consideration at policy and budget level

A consultation on the future of pensions and provision for retirement will be launched by Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty on Monday.

It will help inform the design of a new approach to the State contributory pension from 2020. Under a new so-called total contributions approach (TCA), a person’s contributory pension will be proportionate to the contributions they make. The aim is that this should have fair regard for periods of child-rearing, full-time caring and periods in receipt of social protection payments.

A TCA option is also being made available later this year, as an interim measure, for people who reached State pension age after September 1st, 2012.

Ms Doherty will open a half-day seminar on Monday morning on this approach. Representatives of a broad range of organisations will attend, including employers’ organisations, advocacy groups for carers and older people, the Irish Farmers’ Association, trade unions and the National Youth Council of Ireland.

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The Minister said the TCA approach, first announced in the 2010 National Pensions Framework, and furthered in the Government’s Roadmap For Pension Reform 2018-2023 published earlier this year, required consideration from both a policy and budgetary perspective.

At the end of the consultation process a report will be compiled on the proposals and observations made by those who engaged in the consultation.

Final scheme

“I will use these contributions to prepare my proposals to Government on the shape of the final scheme,” Ms Doherty said.

She noted the Government roadmap guaranteed that the State pension would “remain the bedrock of the Irish pension system”.

The Minister said that in addition to the security of the State pension, it was also very important to ensure that all employees were putting aside sufficient funds for their old age so that they would not face an income shock in retirement.

“The Government will establish an automatic enrolment system to enable employees who do not currently set aside personal retirement savings to do so. There will be a separate consultation later this year on auto-enrolment, and I look forward to hearing from you on that issue in due course.”

The closing date for receipt of submissions to the TCA consultation is September 3rd, and full details are available at welfare.ie/consulations.