A good life in retirement

The State Pension is the cornerstone of pension provision in Ireland. It helps prevent poverty in retirement and it acknowledges the contribution that older people have made to our society. As a party, we are committed to protecting and incrementally increasing the State Pension to ensure that older people have sufficient income and adequate resources to have a decent standard of living in retirement. We will also incrementally address the pension anomaly which denies many people, and women in particular, their entitlement to a full State Pension.

While protecting the State Pension, we are also acutely cognisant of the need to encourage people to save for their own retirement. Only 35% of people in the private sector have private pensions. Such a low level of coverage is not sustainable given demographic changes and increased life expectancy. Therefore a concerted effort must be made to increase coverage and address the pension provision deficit in Ireland.