Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans for the introduction of mandatory pension for middle and lower income workers in the private sector; if she will give details of the proposed amount that employers would pay towards this scheme, on behalf of their employees; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23107/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The most recent coverage figures available from the Central Statistics Office indicate that just over half of workers aged between 20 and 69 had a pension at the end of 2009.

The fact that supplementary pension coverage continues to be relatively low is of major concern to the Government. That is why the Programme for Government includes a commitment to achieve universal coverage, with a particular focus on low to middle income groups.

A soft-mandatory approach such as that envisaged by an auto-enrolment scheme is a very proactive way in which we can increase pension coverage. This proposal is set out in the National Pensions Framework and describes a scheme with contributions from employees, employers and the State. Contributions will only be in respect of earnings above a certain minimum level and below a certain maximum.

An Implementation Group, chaired by my Department, has been working on the development of the details of the scheme including consideration of the contribution rate.

The National Pensions Framework indicated that this scheme would be implemented in 2014 but only if this would be prudent given the economic conditions prevailing at that time.