Over-50 age group will double in next 15 years, social report says

The Republic's population is ageing faster than any other in the European Union, an EU report shows. The Social Situation in the European Union 2001 estimates that the number of Irish people aged between 55 and 64 will double over the next 15 years.

This compares to a projected increase in that age bracket of 23 per cent in the UK and just 3 per cent in Germany over the same period.

The study shows the number of Irish people aged between 15 and 24 years is due to fall by 17 per cent between 2000 and 2015, while the number in the 25-54 age bracket is due to increase by 19 per cent.

The Republic is one of only four countries projected to show a rise in the latter age bracket with the next largest increase - of just 4 per cent - due in Portugal.

Prof Brian Nolan of the Economic and Social Research Institute said the report highlighted the need to make provision for this demographic "bulge" which, he said, was "further away for us than for other countries".

The establishment of the Government's pension fund and changes in the institutional structure of private pensions were important steps, he said. "But what we have not really addressed is what to do with the people who are going to be in the workforce for some time yet.

"In general we are not good at investing in company training to get people to do jobs better and adapt to changing circumstances."

Rather, he said, there was a tendency to replace older staff with younger recruits. "You can get away with that in a booming economy like we had, but in a normal economy this will lead to a lot of older people being left to rely on social welfare," he said.

The report found that the Republic had the lowest expenditure on social protection as a percentage of GNP in the EU. In 1998, 16.1 per cent of GNP was spent on social protection, almost half that in France, Germany and Denmark.

The richest 20 per cent of the Irish population was said to have had an income 5.6 times higher than that of the poorest 20 per cent, compared to an EU average of 5.2.