Almost half a million women in the workforce have no private pensions to support them in their future years, it emerged today.
The Minister for Social Affairs, SeamUS Brennan said the situation for those in part-time jobs was even more dire with up to 95 per cent of women without pensions.
On International Women's Day, Mr Brennan warned unless pensions coverage improved significantly in the decades ahead women would be forced to live poorer lives. Mr Brennan said: "The statistics in relation to women and pensions speak for themselves."
The pensions coverage figures for 2005 show 618,000 men, or 54.2 per cent, have an occupational or private pension compared with some 400,000, or 47.5 per cent, of women.
The Minister said: "When you take away those on public service pensions, then the picture is even bleaker. In other words, it is quite possible that only one third of working women outside the public service have pensions and many of these have pensions that are far from adequate."
At an event to launch the Pensions Board teaming up with recruitment company, CPL, to provide pensions information to those seeking employment, Mr Brennan warned the statistics show women tend to be particularly vulnerable when it comes to pensions.
He said: "The coverage and adequacy situation is even more stark when it comes to part-time employment, a sector that traditionally employs large numbers of women.
"Only 4.9per cent of those working less than 10 hours a week have a pension while the coverage rate for those working 10 to 19 hours a week is 15.3per cent."
The initiative will see 30,000 people a year being given the Pensions Board 'Checklist' which encourages them to start a pension in their new jobs. The checklist has 10 key questions for people to ask themselves about their pension status.
Anne Maher, chief executive of the Pensions Board, said: "The recruitment sector is in an ideal position to provide pensions information to those changing employment or starting a new job.
"By law your employer must provide you with some form of access to a pension, whether you are in full-time, part-time, temporary, contract or casual employment. It is very important that employees ask their employer what pension arrangements are available to them.
"We chose International Women's Day to launch this initiative because women in particular need to focus on their pensions and this link-up with the recruitment sector will help us reach our key target areas."
Mr Brennan said the number of people aged over 65 will more than treble from current levels of about 464,000 to 1,500,000 by 2056. This will mean a drop from four workers contributing to the support of every pensioner, to 2.7 in 2026, while the cost of the social welfare and state pension system will spiral.
He said: "We all know that women are now living longer than men. However, unless circumstances change, the harsh reality is that they may live longer but many may also live poorer in old age. "The state pension has doubled inside a few years and is now set to well deliver the Government's commitment of 200 euro (#140) a week by 2007.
"But it has to be said that even at 200 euro-plus a week, a full state pension, while an important contribution, will hardly keep women in later years in the lifestyles to which so many have rightly grown accustomed."
The Pensions Board is currently examining the options for rolling-out mandatory or soft mandatory pensions to achieve security for people in later years. ends