Mr. Declan Lawlor:

As I alluded to earlier, I think it is partly down to the participation rate of females in occupational pension schemes tending to be lower. I do not have statistics to prove this but, based on my long years working in the pensions world, I think that is a factor. Females may have higher participation rates in the types of occupations that do not have occupational pension schemes, including service industries, hospitality and so on. Again, it is outside the remit of this committee, but if the introduction of the new auto-enrolment ever gets implemented, it will begin to address that. For people who are currently on the glide path to retirement, one of the factors which influences why women may want to stay in employment longer is simply financial. They are going to suffer a loss of income for the 12 months between the ages of 65 and 66. There is also the fact that, frankly, although the State pension is one of the more generous pensions in the OECD, it will still be a reduction of income for virtually everybody. I think it is partly financial but it is also that females may not have the luxury of occupational pension schemes to the extent that males have.