Implications for public policy

Abstract

I would like to thank the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland for inviting me to present a paper at this symposium on Pensions. It is certainly a period of great discussion and debate on pensions and is a very exciting time for a civil servant like myself at the policy coalface of this debate in the Department of Social Welfare. In my presentation tonight I would like to briefly: ? describe the current pensions system in Ireland; ? outline the pensions debate, the range of players here and the current focus of this debate, which is the National Pensions Policy Initiative; and ? explain the background to this Initiative, which is jointly sponsored by the Department of Social Welfare and the Pensions Board, and the progress to date. I would then like to examine the Social Welfare pensions system. Finally, I will outline some issues for the future as I see them.