Events

"Pensions in Ireland: Prospects and Challenges"

A public panel discussion held on the 6th May 2009.

Presentations:

'Stop Looking for Silver Bullets' by Mr. David Harney

David Harney is Chief Executive of Irish Life Corporate Business. Irish Life Corporate Business provide pension and insurance products to companies and affinity groups in Ireland. Irish Life Corporate Business have almost 200,000 pension customers and over 400,000 insurance customers.

Abstract
The private sector pension system is evolving to a more rational form of pension provision which operates on the basis of defined contributions and which has less exposure to equities. This, combined with the State pension, will provide people with good incomes in retirement. The actual reform needed to the overall system is not that substantial but includes:

• Changing the rules about which scheme members receive priority when a defined benefit scheme is wound up;

• A mixed or hybrid scheme for the public sector which operates on a defined benefit basis up to a salary of €50k and on a defined contribution basis thereafter;

• Automatic deduction of contributions (with an opt out) agreed through social partnership on an industry by industry basis.

Download the full presentation here.

'Private Pension Problems and Proposals for a Fairer Pension System' by Prof. Gerard Hughes

Gerard Hughes is a Visiting Professor in the School of Business, Trinity College Dublin and in the Department of Economics, University College Cork. Formerly he was a Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute.  He is a founder member of the European Network for Research on Supplementary Pensions and he is a member of the TCD Pension Policy Research Group. As a member of this group he has collaborated with Tasc – a think tank for action on social change – on its PolicyBrief Making Pensions Work for People. He has written a number of papers on private pensions and equity, the civil service pension scheme, pensioners’ incomes, and the tax treatment of private pensions.  Currently he is co-editing a book for Edward Elgar on Personal Provision of Retirement Income: Meeting the Needs of Older People?

Abstract

The problems of the private pension system in relation to the cost and distribution of tax reliefs, poor and falling coverage, risk shifting and underfunding will be outlined to support the argument that Ireland needs a fairer pension system based on much greater reliance on the public pension system than has been the case in the past. The proposals of the TCD Pension Policy Group for reforming both the public and private pension systems to achieve a fairer pension system will be presented.

Download the full presentation here.

'100 Years of Failure: Ireland's Public-Private Partnership in Pension Provision' by Dr. Shane Whelan

Shane Whelan is an actuary with extensive experience of the pension and investment industry where he has worked for over a decade and a half. He became a lecturer in Actuarial Science and Statistics at University College Dublin in September 2001, later Head of Department before it was merged on the School of Mathematical Sciences. Shane has presented and published many papers on pension, mortality and investment topics to professional and academic audiences. Shane has a mathematical science degree from UCD, a doctorate from Heriot-Watt, and has played an active role in the actuarial profession both in the UK and Ireland. Shane's website, where most of his publications are available, can be found at: http://www.ucd.ie/statdept/staff/homepages/swhelan.html

Abstract

The framework of occupational and  private pensions in Ireland has changed little over the period since Ireland's independence. It has been heavily subsidised and lightly monitored.  It is now clear that the current system provides inadequate security to future pensioners, provides relatively poor value for money because of the loss of economies of scale, and can only survive with the very material subsidies from tax relief - a regressive system of subsidies that creates material inequities. The failures are listed and contrasted with a proposed new system that is free for such deficiencies.

Download the full presentation here.