Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan has said that society will have to face some stark choices on increasing pensions coverage, after his department completes a new Green Paper on the matter in the months ahead.
Mr Brennan said that 900,000 people do not have adequate pension cover and that society could not just tell those people to fend for themselves in their old age.
The Minister still favours a mandatory-type pension scheme but said he did not now expect a decision about this before the election next year.
Mr Brennan was speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Association of Pensions Funds at Dublin Castle. also at the conference, there was a warning that the introduction of mandatory pensions would certainly increase coverage but the pension system could collapse as a result.
Eagle Star's pension director Brendan Johnston said that in addition, it would be a 'political minefield' to introduce with workers resisting it as further taxation and employers seeing it as an additional cost of employment.
