Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason I have held back on too much detail in this area is because the detail has yet to be worked out and anything that is done, as we will be aware from experience in other countries, needs to be done with a degree of political consensus. It is one of the issues that I hope the new labour-employer forum will consider this year. Indeed, the Government will ask it to do that. It is something we want to develop with agreement, if possible, from unions and employers.

My view on the State pension is that it should remain the bedrock of the pension system. It is the mechanism by which we have 98% avoidance of pensioner poverty in this country. That is why I expressed the view, previously and in that interview, that I believe the State pension should increase every year at the very least in line with the cost of living. What I am saying clearly is that any new system brought in should be supplementary and on top of the State pension.

We do not yet have exact figures but if a person wanted an occupational pension that delivered roughly half his or her salary at retirement, the kind of figure that would need to be put in is roughly between 15% and 18%. That is the kind of sum workers have to put into their pensions to get the kind of return they would like, but of course that includes the tax relief from the State and, therefore, it is really approximately half of that.

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