Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department will provide a very detailed briefing on its three recent reports. The OECD has an expertise in the area and has long advised us on systems for education, health and social protection, how we compare with the most developed countries in the world and how we might improve our different systems. We commissioned the OECD report which stated that Ireland has done well with its State retirement pension in all categories.

Deputy Butler referred to a sustainable pension system in the light of population changes and investment challenges. However, I do not have the time to go into great detail about the OECD report. Perhaps the committee could arrange a public meeting on the matter or it could meet my officials at the Department for a direct briefing on the OECD report. I am happy with whichever the committee chooses.

The OECD recommended two options if we want adequate pension levels, as Deputy Butler mentioned, to provide a decent standard of living in retirement: either a mandatory supplementary pension that would be organised by the State, or an auto-enrolment structure. The latter would mean that once a person commences work he or she would be automatically enrolled in a supplementary pension scheme, above and beyond the social welfare pension. However, we could only adopt either option when the economy picks up. We know that people are very tight with their money and face a lot of challenges related to debt and so on. As the country recovers Ireland should opt for auto-enrolment, and I have said that publicly before. It would mean that a person would be automatically enrolled in a pension scheme under his or her own name. I want people to be secure in the knowledge that if they put their money away a future government cannot take it, as happened with the National Pensions Reserve Fund after the bank collapse. Such a scheme would take an amount of work but it would provide adequacy. We then need to modernise the system. We need to provide clear information on charges and to give reports to people regularly, and we need transparency. The current social welfare legislation will introduce additional changes to facilitate such a pension scheme. I will also establish a pensions council which will advise me, as Minister, on what is in the best interest of consumers and the people who will pay into the pension funds, and on how their needs will best be served.

The pensions industry in Ireland employs many thousands of people. We want reasonable charges, good investment policies and to know how a fund is doing. We also need to provide equity across the system. Only 50% of people have signed up for a supplementary or private pension. Many women and younger people move in and out of employment so tend not to have a supplementary pension. Many women may be dependents of retired people when they reach pension age themselves. Pensions are a very big social issue for Irish society. It would be great if we could set up systems over the next couple of years and thus provide for people in 20, 30 and 40 years' time.