Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan has launched National Pensions Action Week from March 12-18. The Pensions Board will run a number of initiatives targeting, in particular, age groups and economic sectors with low pensions coverage.
Minister Brennan referred to figures showing that the areas with lowest coverage were the hotels and agriculture sectors. Of 116,600 currently employed in the hotel and catering sector, 101,000 do not have pensions. For agriculture, only 29,650 of almost 116,000 workers said they had pensions.
The Government's Green Paper on the future of pensions policy is due to be completed by the end of this month. This paper is looking at all options to improve pensions coverage, including the possibility of some form of mandatory system.
