Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 115: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when she will publish the national pensions framework. [1791/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As Deputies are aware, the Green Paper on Pensions outlined the challenges facing the Irish pensions system in the years ahead, including the sustainability of the system over the longer term in light of demographic change and the adequacy of contribution levels and benefits. The consultation process which followed publication of the Green Paper reflected the wide range of views and interests held by individuals and organisations throughout the country. While there was no consensus on ways to respond to the challenges facing our pension system, it was clear that there were significant issues and problems that people wanted addressed.

Since the Green Paper was published in October 2007, the economic environment has changed considerably and the Government need to ensure that any decisions we make in the pensions area will be robust enough to withstand the challenges which will arise in the future. We must make decisions now to ensure the adequacy of retirement incomes for this and future generations while, at the same time, develop a system which is affordable and sustainable for the State and for those who sponsor and provide pension schemes.

In the past 18 months or so the Government has taken a number of steps to respond to the immediate difficulties facing pension scheme members, particularly members of defined benefit schemes. These include the establishment of a pensions insolvency payment scheme and a reordering of wind-up priorities so that, in any defined benefit wind-up situation, employees and former employees who have not yet retired may still receive a large proportion of their benefits. Legislation to support these measures was passed in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009. The Government has also introduced provisions to allow for more flexible restructuring of pension benefits and stronger regulation regarding remittance of pension contributions. We have also protected people in receipt of the State Pension by retaining the rates of pension and other social welfare payments for older people in the recent Budget.

The Government is aware that the wider and longer-term pensions policy issues require a comprehensive and co-ordinated response and we have been considering a number of options to address the challenges facing our pension system. Uncertainty in the economic climate has increased the complexity of the decisions we must make but it does not prevent or deter the Government from making these vitally necessary decisions. However, it does require us to give very careful consideration, and it is precisely because the development of the framework involves decisions on such a wide range of future and complex issues that we have been spending a considerable amount of time working on it. I hope to be in a position to publish the framework shortly.