Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

As the House is aware, the Government is committed to producing a Green Paper on pensions in accordance with the partnership agreement, Towards 2016. The Green Paper will be published when the Government has completed its considerations in this regard.

The preparation of the Green Paper follows a period of increased activity in the development of pensions policy, which has seen the publication of two major reports by the Pensions Board, National Pensions Review and Special Savings for Retirement. These two reports built on the earlier report of the board on the national pensions policy initiative, published in 1998.

The Green Paper will take account of these reports and examine the situation in a much broader way to deal with issues raised in the partnership talks, such as the operation of the funding standard for defined benefit schemes, together with a comprehensive look at issues surrounding social welfare pensions that arise from time to time in the House and in representations which I receive.

The purpose of the Green Paper is not to recommend any particular course of action but rather to set out clearly the current situation and the implications, from an economic and social perspective, of various courses of action that have been suggested. The Green Paper will set out the key issues and challenges facing the Irish pensions system, including the demographic challenge, issues in relation to the sustainability of the pensions system, pensioner incomes and the contribution various elements of the pension system can make to their adequacy, work flexibility in older age, the roles and relationships of social welfare and private occupational and public service pensions in the future, the role of tax incentives in the current system and their efficiency and effectiveness in supporting Government objectives in the area, the role of annuities and the operation of that market, and the role of regulation, including the charges levied by pension providers

Publication of the Green Paper will be the initial move in a series of measures that will culminate in the Government publishing a framework for long-term pensions policy.

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