The Society says that falling investment returns make early retirement an unobtainable objective for the majority of people.
There are two types of private pensions, defined benefit schemes where employers take the risk and guarantee a post-retirement income and defined contribution schemes where employees take all the risk.
When the public sector is excluded, almost half of all workers are now in contribution schemes and they have seen the value of their funds fall for the past three years as equity markets have plummeted. In 2002 the average Irish pension fund fell by 19%.
As a result, the Society of Actuaries in Ireland have recommended that contributions to pension schemes should be increased.
Workers aged 30 on a salary of €30,000 should now be paying in 10% of their salary into a pension, rising for a 45-year-old worker on €50,000 to 30% to ensure they can retire on a pension equal to half their salary.
At the moment, the average contribution is just 10%.
