New figures show that Irish managed pension funds experienced a negative return of 4% in November - the seventh monthly negative result in a row.
Consulting group Hewitt Associates said index returns are now down 32% for the year to date.
Hewitt says that some signs of stability emerged during the month however, as equity markets rallied after globally co-ordinated stimulus packages announced in the US, the euro zone, the UK and China.
In November, world markets declined by 6.4% in euro terms, with North America down 7.3%, Europe by 6.9% and Japan by 1.4%. However, the Irish market fared worse with falls of 16.2% over the month as the banking crisis continued to dominate the Dublin market.
Hewitt said its three year fund saw returns of -7.7% per year, while five year funds saw returns of 1.3% a year and the ten year fund struggled to deliver a positive return of just 1.5%.
'As a consequence of the unprecedented volatility in international equity markets and steep market declines suffered by investors in 2008, equity markets are now appearing to offer reasonable value for long term investors,' commented Hewitt's Deborah Reidy.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Social and Family Affair, Mary Hanafin, has said the Government is working closely with pension funds to try ensure that the pensions of people due to retire in the short term can be paid.
Her comments came after a leaked Government memo indicated that more than 90% of final salary schemes are expected to be in deficit when they report to the Pensions Board.
Ms Hanafin said the Government was considering allowing people to defer taking their pensions - for two years - until the market was more favourable.
And she said any pension funds that were in difficulties because of the market downturn would be given more time to try to meet their liabilities.
