Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

This is the first opportunity to welcome the current Minister in this Administration and to wish him well in his portfolio. I thank my colleagues in the Progressive Democrats for tabling this motion on what will be one of the most important issues in the future. I wish to comment on some of the issues I have come across in the Green Paper, even though Deputy Olwyn Enright's reaction was that there was nothing in the Green Paper. Senator Buttimer, who has just left the Chamber, commented that the Green Paper has no concrete proposals. The Minister intervened to explain that the nature of a Green Paper is to inspire reaction and suggestions. It is a mature admission by Government that this is such a problem that, after 2012, if still calculated as a proportion of incomes, pensions will be in unsustainable territory. It requires all of our ideas and innovation to come up with a strategy that can best address this issue.

By 2021 the population of those over 65 will have increased by 59% and by 142% by 2061. The worker to pensioner ratio, currently 6:1, will be 1:1. This is frightening when one considers its implications. I hope all sections of society will buy into the process and allocate thought time to their views on planning and tackling the issue. One of the greatest challenges is that working class people, or less well-off people, are those on whom we must focus because they are least likely to be in a position to provide for their future. We must be most innovative in this regard.

Research by the Irish Association of Pension Funds suggests that 86% of those without a pension in the services sector would start one if the Government contributed €1 for every €1 saved. That is not sustainable. It also stated that 91% of those with pensions said they would increase their contributions. Again, we are not dealing with those who are already making pension contributions but rather with those who are not doing so. I refer in this regard to younger members of the population who must be told to make provision for the future.

When one is 18 to 21 years one may well be a student. For those between the ages of 21 to 26, the emphasis may be more on taking a year out to travel to Australia, buying a first car or whatever. It is alien in the extreme to young people to consider providing for their futures by way of making pension contributions. We must focus on ways to encourage these individuals to make such contributions. Perhaps we could do so via a scheme under which it might be possible, if the scheme was successful, to withdraw an amount of money every five years — until one reaches 45 — in order to make key purchases. People might be of the opinion that they could reap benefits from such a scheme.

I first paid into a pension scheme from the age of 21. I thought I was being exceptionally prudent. However, I reached a period in my mid-20s where, when buying a car or whatever, I realised that I would not see the benefit of the money I was putting away until I reach the age of 65.