Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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29. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will report on recent proposals for further cuts to the State pension; if she will report on proposed changes to the State pension; and the work that has been done on a proposed universal pension savings scheme. [4715/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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State pensions account for the single largest block of social welfare expenditure, and while expenditure on pensions is increasing because of demographic pressures, this is being successfully managed within the overall welfare budget. This year, the Department of Social Protection will spend an estimated €6.675 billion on pensions – 34.4% of all welfare expenditure and an increase of €168 million over 2014. The overall concern of the Government in recent budgets has been to protect the primary weekly social welfare rates where possible. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other core payments is critical in protecting people from poverty. The Government has no plans to change this policy, and I have not been presented with proposals from any Minister to reduce the basic rate of the State pension. In fact, the Government increased payments for certain pensioners by increasing the rate of the Living Alone Allowance in Budget 2015 to €9.00. This increases the maximum personal rate of the State non-contributory pension for a qualified person living alone to €228 per week, and the maximum rate for the State contributory pension to €239.30, when both the basic pension and the allowance are taken into account. In addition I was pleased to restore a partial Christmas bonus last month, benefitting over 575,000 pensioners and 1.23 million welfare recipients in total. In relation to supplementary retirement income, the development of a system to progressively achieve universal supplementary pension coverage has been a stated goal of Irish pension policy for a number of years. The programme for Government and the recent 2014-2016 Statement of Priorities affirmed this commitment. In this regard, the Government has recently made a decision to proceed with work to develop a roadmap and timeline for the introduction of a new supplementary workplace retirement saving scheme. Development of this roadmap will be progressed by the establishment of a high level Universal Retirement Savings Group (URSG). The URSG will consist of senior official representatives from key Government departments and those public bodies with a particular responsibility in the area. The group will engage with the various sectoral interests including those from the pensions industry, representatives of small, large and multinational employers, trade unions and consumer/interest group representatives. The broad role of the group will be to consider the constituent factors involved in constructing an efficient and effective universal retirement savings system. A recommendation will be brought to Government for consideration in the form of a roadmap and estimated timeline for introduction.